She Falls Into Darkness
by prettypanda117
Summary: The continuing stories of Lara N. Sheppard. Manipulated and shaped to John Harrison's liking she has become everything she vowed to fight as a member of Starfleet. Will Jim ever forgive himself for what Lara became? Will Lara fall back in her first loves arms or will she follow John into darkness? Sequel to The Trek of the Stars. John Harrison/OC
1. Chapter 1

****_If you're coming from Trek of the Stars then hello again! If you're new then welcome! If you didn't already know this is a sequel to my previous story. It gets a bit dark kiddos so turn on your night lights and huddle under that blanket cause this story...might cause a few feels...just sayin_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek_

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"This assembly calls Captain James Tiberius Kirk, your inspirational valor and supreme dedication to your comrades as in keeping with the highest traditions of service and reflect the utmost credit to yourself, your crew and the federation. It is my honor to award you with this accommodation. By Starfleet order 28455 you are hereby directed to report to Admiral Pike of the USS Enterprise to report for duty and his relief." Jim shook Admiral Barnett's hand and turned toward Pike who was in his clean Admiral's suit and sitting in a wheelchair.

After a pause Jim spoke, "I relieve you sir."

"I am relieved," Pike said looking up at Jim with a bright smile on his face.

"Thank you sir," Jim said grinning.

"Congratulations Captain," Pike said then took his hand, "Your father would be proud."

Applause started to build and rise higher and higher. Jim turned to look at the crowd, still grinning. He met eyes with his crew and soon met eyes with Lara. She was smiling widely at him and felt tears threaten to run down her cheeks. His father would be very proud of Jim and she knew how much Jim had dreamed of this moment. Lara laughed quietly and put her hand over her heart, telling Jim in their own way that she loved him.

* * *

"So, we move out tomorrow?" Lara asked settling down at their table.

"That is correct missy, I'm very excited," Scotty said across from her. Lara giggled at his thick Scottish accent. All of the Enterprises officers had decided to go out to celebrate their successful mission and Jim's new title.

"I just wish we could have gotten a few more days of shore leave," Uhura said looking over at Spock, who if Vulcans could blush would be a deep red color by now.

"Yeah just a few more days would have been perfect," Jim said slipping his hand into Lara's underneath the table. She smiled at him and thought back to their several days together. Granted most of those days were spent inside but they enjoyed themselves, one way or another.

As the officers chatted and shared stories and laughs Lara couldn't help but finally feel a sense of peace. She finally found a family again after being alone for so long. The death of her parents had been sudden and unforgiving. Her only support was Jim and his mother and although she would be eternally grateful for the help, the hole she felt in her heart couldn't ever be filled the right way again. But looking around now at her friends and colleagues she realized that although she may not have a mother or father, she had brothers and a dear sister and a love that she had been long waiting for.

Lara reached for her wine glass and raised it above the table, "To us, the friendships we are sure to build and the memories I can't wait to make with you all."

The others smiled and grinned while raising their various drinks as well. "To the Enterprise," Jim said and everyone echoed. They all drank and laughed afterward, not knowing the darkness that was ahead of them.

* * *

"God damnit Jim go!" Lara yelled at him over the various explosions and quakes.

Jim held his ground, shoving his phaser back into its holster he grabbed her shoulders, "I'm the captain here and I say we are all leaving. This entire facility is coming down on top of us and I don't need you arguing with me."

Lara stared up into his eyes, so clear and full of hope. They had come to an underground and namely abandoned Starfleet facility to recover data that had been lost in what looked like a Klingon attack. But when they set down and the ground team-Lara, Jim, Spock and Bones-had landed they saw evidence of something entirely different. Since the facility was underground they had to access it through a tunnel, dropping down using grappling hooks attached to their belts. Once they reached the floor of the caves they saw that whatever had attacked this place had come from _inside_ the labs. Whatever Starfleet was working on here had attacked the scientists. And unfortunately, they found the attacker.

The thing couldn't even be called human anymore. Radiation and exposure to the many chemicals in the lab had morphed the failed project or…person into a pure horror. It was full of rage and running on instinct only wanting to kill and eat, and in this case it was the four Enterprise officers standing in its path. They had taken the thing out but Lara's quick planning of aiming a mining laser right at the mutation's chest caused the rest of the rubble and equipment to fail which then caused the facility to fall apart and collapse on itself.

Now they had finally made it up using the elevator but it wouldn't hold. Lara had her hand pressed firmly on the elevator's main console trying to keep it in place as Spock carried an injured and hobbling Bones out of the caves. Lara looked up at Jim and smiled at him, "You know if I release this, the elevator will collapse and send us both down. Enterprise cannot lose its captain."

"And the captain can't lose his girl," he said almost pleading, squeezing her shoulders.

Lara felt the tears burn and threaten to fall but she held them back, she didn't need to make this any harder than it had to be, "Alright, take my grapple and use it to hook up to the edge of the entrance. Once you've got it pull me with you."

Jim released the grapple from her hips and did as she said. Swinging and releasing the grapple when he heard the clink of the medal attaching to the rock. As he turned back he felt Lara wrap her arm around his neck and pull him in for a short, passionate kiss. "I love you." She said and then quickly kicked him hard in the stomach, releasing her hand from the button on the console.

It all happened in slow motion after that. Jim looked down at her and felt the scream rise out of his chest. Her hair had fallen out of its braid, fanning out around her as the lift fell down, screeching and sparks flying. He reached a hand out for her calling her name and shouting out his protests. Maybe if he shouted loud enough it would reverse time and he could be in her place and she could be on the ship, safe and alive.

Jim's grapple or rather Lara's grapple pulled him into the wall of the cave hard. He felt numb and his hands fumbled with the release as he tried to pull himself away from the wall so he could jump back down and get her. "Jim no!" Bones called for him, running at him on his bad leg and grabbing him around the waist.

"Get the hell off me! I can save her! She's still alive!" Jim shoved Bones off him ignoring the man's cry of pain and made to jump down the cave again. Just as he was leaning back for the leap over the edge the elevator hit the bottom of the cave system, causing the rest of the facility to quake violently. The walls of the cave began to fall and rubble hell all around him, kicking up smoke and ash.

"Captain we must vacate the area at once!" Spock's even stronger grip came around Jim's waist and pulled him off to a safe area where Bones was limping toward as well. Jim still fought and thrashed against the Vulcan's hold calling out for Lara and trying to pull rank against his officers.

Spock looked over at Bones, "Doctor if you would."

And before Jim could even begin to realize what they were doing, he felt a sharp pain in his neck and then the darkness too him over.

* * *

The funeral was long and depressing. Jim could hardly stand all the formalities he had to go through. All the cameras, all the music…Lara loved music. And the tears, so many tears. Even Pike shed a few. And because Lara had no immediate family, Pike was the one to receive the flag. He was the closest thing she had to a father. _Lara hated funerals too._

* * *

Three months. Three months to the day that she had died. Jim sat in his quarters and sifted through old pictures of the two together. He came to the last picture they ever took together. It was on one of the days of their shore leave after the battle with Nero. They had taken a trip to a beach and spent all day in the sands and waters. He remembered that moment like it was yesterday.

_Lara laughed and dug her toes deeper into the sands as she watched Jim try and fail for the third time to build a sand castle. "You are terrible at that."_

_He looked over at her, "Well you try it if you're so damned good." Lara laughed again, bronze skin glistening in the sun, contrasted wonderfully against her coral bikini. She sat up and moved next to him taking a large ball of sand into her hands and then paused,_

"_You remember that time we tried to bake a cake? But ended up getting in a cake batter fight?" Jim smiled at the memory and how good Lara looked splattered with yellow cake batter._

"_Well how could I…" he stopped when he felt the soft thump of wet sand on his chest. He heard Lara laugh and then squeal as he jumped on her, burying her in sand. They rolled around back and forth, throwing sand and taunts at each other. Finally when they were too tired they fell on their backs, panting and laughing._

_Jim looked over at her. She had sand in her hair, skin glowing and eyes bright from laughter. He realized then that he'd never love any woman as deeply as her ever again._ _Lara's laughs died down to small giggles. "Hey," she said reaching for her bag and pulling out a small silver camera, "Take our picture. Go on, please?" She pouted at his look and Jim gave in. He took the camera from her and pulled her head onto his shoulder and snapped the picture, forever capturing the moment he realized how madly in love he was with Lara Nicole Sheppard._

Jim smiled sadly at the picture. Lara's head was on his shoulder and she was smiling widely, laughing at her own expense. Jim had his head down in the picture, smiling down at his love. The sand was everywhere, in her hair, in his and all over their faces. They looked so happy in that captured moment, so at peace and so unafraid of what they might lose.

He ran a finger over the picture before shutting down the program, a lone tear falling down his cheek. Jim made to stand but stopped when his console beeped, telling him he had a message. It was a video file but the video was corrupted and the feed was terrible. Luckily there was a message attached to the video. He opened it and began to read.

_**Captain,**_

_**This may come to you at a difficult time but I've seen the feeds and know how the funeral went. It was incredibly depressing, how cliché. If I am correct it has been exactly three months since my death. Three months and now if you receive this message when I assume you will then it will be two hours and five minutes after the precise time that elevator fell down the shaft.**_

_**If you don't connect the dots by now then let me say it plainly. It is me, Lara talking to you via this message. But you should know something James. I am not the Lara you grew up with. I have transcended that person and am now better than I ever was. I no longer feel the need to serve Starfleet. Now that I know the truth of my parents' death and the truth of that laboratory we found I no longer wish to serve a group of people built on lies and deception. I have been shown the truth, and I have embraced it and grown stronger.**_

_**Do not search for me. The Lara Sheppard you knew is dead. She does not exist anymore. I have a new name now, and the one who found me and helped me see truth has enlightened me. He has brought me out of the ashes and into the light, I do not need Starfleet or anyone anymore…only him. Just him.**_

_**This message will be deleted as soon as you close it. Or it will delete itself after a time. I know you would try to keep this message open as long as possible. But it is not possible Captain. Lara Sheppard is dead, let her die and do not open old wounds. Do not tell anyone else of this…we will know if you have.**_

_**Goodbye Captain, until we meet again**_

_**Lara Harrison.**_

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_More chapters to come! Thanks for reading!_**  
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	2. Chapter 2

**_Hello! This is a re-edited version of my story...all the chapters following (minus chapter 6) are picked apart and put back together so that now the entire story has a decent timeline...I really hope it all makes sense cause i've racked my brain for several hours checking and rechecking all of these chapters. If anything doesn't make sense please do not hesitate to ask, you never know you might point something out that I have missed._**

**_Thanks for reading!_**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara..._**

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"I love you," She said and then quickly kicked him hard in the stomach, releasing her hand from the button on the console. Lara watched Jim as he was pulled away from her and toward the entrance. He reached out for her, almost like if he stretched far enough he could grab her and pull her to safety.

Lara simply watched him as the elevator fell. The most she could muster up was a small, sad smile and then she felt the flames begin to climb up towards her feet. As Jim fell out of her line of sight she began to feel the tears trickle down her cheeks. The rocks and ash fell around her, the heat climbed higher and higher and she felt her throat begin to close up.

She coughed and fell to her knees holding her chest as it burned from the inside out. Lara gagged as another intense wave of heat washed over her, the metal of the lift began to burn but she hardly felt the searing pain of her burning flesh. She already regretted leaving Jim the way she had, that pain was enough for her. But she didn't regret saving him and the others. Jim had greatness in him she knew he did, all he needed was a little push...and if this is what it took for him to see that then so be it.

Lara's vision began to blur and she coughed again, this time blood fell out of her mouth. "Time to go," she said pulling out her phaser. She set it to 'kill' and pointed the end to her temple. Another tear fell down her cheek and her hand began to shake violently, "No more pain...goodbye James." She looked up at the collapsing cave, let the last of her tears fall and then pulled the trigger.

* * *

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Lara felt her eyes flutter open but closed them almost as quickly as she had opened them. The lights above her were so bright, her head began to pound and she felt a cold sweat cover her body. Then she started to panic. Where was she? Why couldn't she feel her legs? Did she even have legs?

She heard the heart rate monitor begin to quicken, and her breathing turned hasty and shallow. Lara tried to speak but only choked out a small whimper. Moving her arms she felt several wires and needles pull and restrict her movements. Again she tried to scream but it came out airy and weak.

That's when she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, holding her down and preventing her from misplacing any of the other wires. "Stop," came a voice above her. It was a deep, smooth voice with a smart british accent. Lara looked up and saw a man, handsome with bright green eyes and dark hair. He had full lips, and cheekbones that could cut diamonds.

She struggled against his firm grip, flailing as much as he would allow against the bed. "N...n-o," she finally screeched out. Her heartbeat raced even more and her head began to spin.

"You are going into shock, you weren't supposed to wake up this early," he looked around and eyed a vial of sedative, "Please Lara I'm trying to help you."

She stopped her fighting when she heard her name, "Wha...wh-o?" her dry throat allowed her to say.

"Just know that I'm here to help you," he said and adjusted his hair which had fallen into his eyes. He reached down for the vial of sedative and looked back at her, "That dizziness and your racing heart are signs that your body isn't quite ready to be moving yet. I'd say you need another week of rest before you can leave that bed."

Lara began to shake her head and tried to sit up but felt another wave of light headedness hit her. She fell back on the bed, defeated and terrified. Looking up at him she reached out her hand and grabbed the first thing that was in reach which was the sleeve of his shirt. "Ple...ple-ase," she croaked out, "Scared...af-afra..id."

He nodded and injected the sedative into her arm. Then he leaned down and gently caressed her forehead, "I'll be here when you wake up. You're not alone."

As she felt her eyes grow heavy and her heartbeat slow down she felt his warm hand against her skin. She couldn't explain why, but she trusted this man and knew she wanted to stay with him. He had called her Lara and that was her name yes but she couldn't remember anything else. Why was she on the table? What happened to her? And why did she have this itching feeling in the back of her mind? Like she was supposed to be running toward someone. When she felt the man's hand gently move her hair from her face she knew...it must be this man she should be running toward. Because who else would touch her so gently and fix her wounds with so much care?

* * *

Fire. That's all she could see.

"God damnit Jim go!" a voice echoed-her voice-against the walls of the cave.

More fire. Ash, rocks, metal...all falling. Chocking, coughing, blood. So much blood she could hardly breathe. "Time to go..." she whispered. Then the silver of the phaser flashed and she felt the burn in her head. It hurt. Her entire heard burned from the inside out.

Crystal blue eyes rimmed with tears watched her..._wanted_ her. She could remember his name...James...she said goodbye and pulled the trigger.

Lara shot her eyes open. She was lying on the same table from before and thought she could hear a voice echoing somewhere from the other side of the room. Attempting to move she found her limbs stiff and awkward. She sat up, with great difficulty and tried to swing her legs over the edge of the bed and nearly fell over in the process.

That's when she felt the same hands from before take her shoulders, "You're awake then."

Looking up she saw his face clearly for the first time. He was very handsome with pale skin and eyes so bright...so clear. "Wha...Who?"

He wrapped a strong arm around her waist and helped her stand, "Harrison, John Harrison."

Lara moved her eyes around the room quickly. She was in a lab of some sorts, makeshift, home-made. The memory of the man-John-putting her back to sleep before flashed in her head and she remembered how quickly she had trusted him. Is that right? She thought watching his face as she clumsily pushed him away and stood up on her own.

John turned to a small bed-side table and pulled out from the drawer a set of clothes. Handing them to her he instructed she put them on. Lara set the clothes on the bed and was nearly shocked when he walked out of the room, closing the door behind himself.

She looked down at the pile of clothes. A pair of black shorts and a black t-shirt. As Lara began to pull on the shorts and shirt she had more flashes of her dream. More like a nightmare, she thought adjusting the cotton shirt over her arms.

Lara thought about her dream. The fire and sounds were all so real. That man...his blue eyes. Then the memory of a blast of a phaser to her head hit her so hard she fell over. Knocking the bed on its side and causing a loud crash to echo against the metal floors.

She held her head in her hands as it pounded and she could feel the fires reaching out for her. "Lara?" John's voice carried across the room to her.

Without thinking she bolted for the nearest, unblocked exit which for her was the large floor-to-ceiling windows. Bursting through the glass she felt for the briefest of moments a sense of weightlessness. Then she was falling.

It felt like she was falling for ages until she saw the large metal garbage transport hovering just below her. Lara felt her instincts take over then. She aimed for the transport, straightening out her body, gaining speed the more she fell.

Just as she was about to hit the transport Lara tumbled and closed her eyes, letting her body take over. To her utter surprise she landed on her feet, knees bent and fists planted firmly into the metal of the transport. What? She thought looking around at where she had landed.

The transport was moving at an incredibly fast pace, causing the wind to kick up severely. Her hair flew all around her face as she straightened up and turned her eyes to the sky. Falling from that distance...should be dead. Lara looked down at her hands and knees. There was hardly a mark on any of them.

She heard a solid thump behind her and turned around to find John had landed on the same transport. As he stood and loomed over her she realized how much she had wanted to stay with him when she first woke up. But who was the man with the blue eyes?

"Lara please, I'm just trying to help you." He called to her as calmly as he could over the noise.

Shaking her head at him she moved to the edge of the transport and looked down. "Too much pain," she whispered more to herself. Turning back to face him she pointed to her head, "Fire and ash dance in the memory. They don't make sense. They bring pain."

"I can take away that pain. I can make the memories go away." He stated the fact like he had rehearsed the line before, simple and calculated.

Lara paused and considered her words carefully before saying them, "I...don't want the pain...anymore. The memories...make my head hurt...his eyes scare me," she wrapped her arms around her body, trembling and feeling alone.

Again John edged closer to her reaching out a hand for her, "I can make that pain disappear. I'll help you..."

Lara turned back and looked over the edge of the transport. So many little things underneath the moving machine. All she would need to do was step off the edge, take the plunge and end the pain forever.

"Lara stop," John called to her, "You are all I have."

That made her stop. She looked back at him with wide, confused eyes. "All you have? You have...no one?"

John sighed, defeated, "All of my family are dead," he stepped closer and extended both hands to her, "Except you."

Lara walked to him, taking each step with care. When she was within his reach, he pulled her to his chest and let out a sigh of relief. Lara just stood in his arms, stiff and trembling. "It hurts me...John. The memories hurt."

"I can make them stop hurting. I can take away the pain."

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_Review, favorite, and follow! Lots of love!_


	3. Chapter 3

**_Short authors note for today, not much to say this time around...thanks for reading!_**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara..._**

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"The man John says Lara should do this. Record herself and talk to no one. He says it helps her brain heal…not be sick anymore…take away the pain," Lara tapped her fingers against the edge of the desk and looked around her nervously, "Sometimes she feels like the ceiling might fall. Sometimes when a light is turned on, her head burns and she remembers the flames...how they tried to eat her. But Lara wouldn't let them."

She sucked in her bottom lip and chewed the inside of her cheek, tapping the unfamiliar rhythms against the desk, "Lara stopped the flames from taking her life. She remembers that. The man John makes her sit and he counts down from five while she sleeps but really, she's awake. Lara only pretends it works so the man John doesn't get angry with her. Lara...killed...herself. Used the phaser and pulled the trigger. What was so important that she died for? She...I…ah..."

Lara held her head as the memories fought and pounded, "His name what was his name! Eyes so blue they look like sky and hair so soft it could make me cry," she banged her fists against the desk as she fought back the tears,

"James T. Kirk! Kirk! Kirk! Kirk!" she slammed her fists against the desk each time she cried out his name, "Lara remembers on her own! Lara remembers on her own! That is what she died for. The one who isn't here, with eyes like the sky and hair so soft it could make her cry."

She stopped and checked her surroundings. When she was sure she was alone she leaned in towards the camera and whispered, "The man John Harrison is a liar. Lara knows his name isn't John Harrison so who could he be? A spy yes, a spy from a different world. Ancient and forgotten, long past but never gone," she straightened up and looked around the room,

"John! John! Lara needs you! Come to where you first met and Lara will tell you good news!"

Looking back at the camera she grinned maniacally, "John wants her. But she isn't ready up here," she pointed to her head with the smile still plastered onto her face, "When Lara is back to normal, when she can push away the crazy and the man John can take away the pain...then she will want him. I can tell. Shhh...it's our secret."

* * *

John stopped the recording. Leaning back he realized just how close Lara had been to falling completely over the edge. In fact it seemed that she had. Talking in third person, speaking in rhymes, he couldn't believe she had come so far. That recording was made nearly two months ago. John looked at the screen; Lara's eyes were wild and bloodshot. He didn't want her to see what she had been like. Quickly trashing the video, he made sure to erase it completely from the computer before leaning back in his chair.

The phaser blast to her head had caused much more damage than he thought. So much so that she required direct injections of his serum into her brain. He had to put her under for those operations...definitely not his favorite. However the short term memory loss was expected.

It was true what she said in the recording. He did want Lara, but not just for purely physical reasons. He wanted so much more. He wanted her to be his family, his life, and even his...love.

John held his head and squeezed. He hated himself for thinking like this. Wanting-no-needing love when he knew how weak it made people. Love clouded the mind and replaced logic with irrational and emotional thoughts. But how could he deny her? Deny himself even? Marcus had woken him up and destroyed his only family, killed his entire crew. Now that he was free and alone...why not take the initiative and find himself a small amount of happiness?

At first he had planned to use Lara against Starfleet. Manipulate her into his own personal weapon and aim her at the hearts of her former crew. Who better to bring them down then a former friend who was thought dead but is now working for the enemy?

John stood then and walked out of his lab. Moving out and down the hall he passed by Lara's room. Before he knew what he was doing, he had his hand on her door knob and slowly pushed it open. Peeking in he saw Lara's form stretched out on the bed. Limbs tangled in the white sheets, mouth slightly parted, hair across her neck and sticking out in every direction. John walked to the side of the bed and reached down to move her hair away from her neck. As his fingers touched her skin she closed her mouth and turned over onto her side, stretching her arms above her head. John gingerly ran a finger across her jaw and found himself relived that she was finally getting a night of peaceful sleep.

Lara had been suffering from nightmares of her death, massive migraines and even had difficulty speaking in clear sentences. It had taken John weeks to get her used to a routine. Every morning she would wake up and he would have her go through tests and training. Mind games, puzzles, physical training...anything to help her mind get back on track. He had tried the hypnosis a few times but found that her now genetically enhanced mind was in fact too enhanced for it. She would pretend to sleep but luckily she always spoke the truth.

Lara now had the rare nightmare, but they were small and would hardly cause her to yell out in her sleep. She had also gained back her memory and what she had told him did not surprise John. Apparently she was in love with her Captain. James Tiberius Kirk had been her life-long friend and both had joined Starfleet wanting to escape their lives and move on to bigger and better things.

She had become friends with a doctor, Leonard McCoy and had a bit of a fling with him but that hadn't branched off anywhere. According to Lara, she had chosen the Captain and eventually...died for him. The unnamed facility they had investigated was an ancient remnant of Section 31. John's "super soldier" formula had been lost and it looked like this facility had been tasked with trying to recreate it. Obviously they had failed.

He backed out of her room, quietly shutting the door and leaning against it when he heard the latch click in place. _Stupid, and utterly ridiculous, _he thought gently knocking his head on the door. He couldn't love her, he cannot love her...no weaknesses.

That's when he heard her voice behind the door. "N...no...no more pain," John opened the door again and watched as she began to thrash against the bed, "Time...time to...to go."

He thought she was done but then she started screaming. Yelling out and fighting against some unknown force. John thought she would get past the small fit but when she started to violently scratch at her arms he intervened. He sat at the edge of the bed and grabbed her wrists. She fought him and kicked her legs, screaming out her fears.

"Lara," he said calmly as to not scare her even more, "Wake up darling. Lara wake up."

She struggled more but finally her eyes shot open. "Wh...J-John? John there was fire," Lara trembled, "The fire was coming for me."

"That was only a dream," he reached over and switched on her bedside table. Turning back to her he nearly fell over as she threw her arms around his neck. John sat there stiffly and unsure of what to do.

Lara sobbed into his shoulder, "I don't want to have nightmares anymore John. I don't want to be scared of the fire anymore."

John put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away. He looked at her swollen, red eyes and held her chin in his hand. His voice trembled and he fought back tears, "I promise you Lara, I _will_ make them go away. I _will_ help you."

Her mouth spluttered and another wave of tears fell. "Don't leave me," Lara whimpered and leaned into his chest, broken and in pieces.

He moved to sit against the headboard of her large bed; keeping her head on his chest he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Go to sleep now," John said running a hand through her silken hair, "I'll be here when you wake up. You're not alone."

* * *

"It has now been two months since Lara first woke up. The nightmares have nearly ceased…just last night I had to…hold her until she fell asleep," Lara watched as John or rather-Khan-rubbed at his tired eyes. "I'm finding myself growing more and more attached to my new companion…she is…important to me."

Khan sighed and reached out, taking a cup of steaming hot liquid and sipping at it. He stared down at his drink and said, "My plans with Lara have changed. I tried speaking to her earlier, tried to tell her the truth but…for the first time in several months, my mind drew a blank. I could not bring myself to tell her what I wanted to say," he replaced the drink and rested his forehead in his hand, "I am…I am afraid of her…"

He looked back up at the camera, eyes red from holding back the tears, "I have been alone for so long. My family is most likely dead, and now the only person who I hold most dear…might not want to know my secrets. I am so terrified that she will think me a monster, that I will have to be alone again…and I don't want her to be alone. Not in this world, not when she needs me. I know she needs me…hope she needs me."

Again he reached for the mug but stopped and looked behind him, "Lara, can you not sleep?"

She walked toward him and rubbed her arms, "No-I…I was wondering if you could make me that tea again. It helped last time."

He nodded, "Yes of course, I'll be right there," as she left he looked back at the screen and quickly wiped his eyes, "Maybe if I can tell her how I feel first, maybe then she won't see me as a monster. I hope she will understand everything when I speak to her…eventually."

* * *

Lara stopped the recording. She felt her throat close up when she realized how much Khan was and probably still is struggling with his emotions. She remembered the day he had finally told her the truth about everything. His true name, where he is really from, why he is here. Lara was-unsurprisingly-terrified at first. How could she find herself trusting a man who at first brought her back solely for the purpose of using her against Starfleet? However, when she began to hear Khan's side of the story…she soon realized how right he was.

Admiral Alexander Marcus, a highly decorated officer and head of Starfleet, had awakened Khan in order to utilize his advanced mind to create and design weapons and starships for the war Marcus had always wanted with the Klingons. Marcus used Khan's crew against him, promising that if the weapons were built his friends would eventually be restored. "Eventually" was a word that brought great sorrow to Khan. For all he knew, his crew could be dead.

Then there was the time Lara had learned the truth of her parent's death. She never realized they were so involved with Starfleet. Lara always thought her father was a simple scientist who collaborated with certain missions, and her mother-she thought her mother worked at HQ as an on-call nurse. However, Khan had assisted in digging and Lara found that the truth was much worse. Mark and Grace Sheppard were both highly trained officers, working in Marcus' Section 31. They had tried to get out his secrets. That Section 31 was in fact, Marcus' way of turning Starfleet into a military unit instead of an organization of explorers. They had tried to flee the planet, leaving their daughter behind to keep her safe. But the admiral, always protecting his own self, had her parents murdered. He had done it efficiently. Start a malfunction in the flight systems right as the shuttle was leaving the atmosphere and as the craft fell, the entire ship and its occupants would be incinerated. Along with any other incriminating data they had on them.

Lara sat back in the large leather chair in Khan's study and gripped the arms. She hated Marcus. She wanted nothing more than to see him burn and die…slowly. Breathing deeply she tried to calm herself and prevent her from breaking yet _another_ chair.

She breathed in deeply, taking in the scents of Khan's penthouse apartment. It always smelled of warm cinnamon and pine…just like he smelled. Lara felt her breath hitch when she thought of this morning's sparring session. Ever since she had woken up Khan had put her through test after test. And she was glad he did…Lara didn't like to think of how broken her mind was back then.

Now she was better and, with a lot of "brain-training" as she liked to call it, her mind was now functioning at a much higher rate. Khan also put her through physical training. He wanted her to be strong and fast. The perfect weapon. His serum had enhanced everything about her. Now her thought processes were accelerated beyond what she ever thought possible. She was faster, more agile and stronger. Not nearly as strong as Khan but she was now a lot stronger than the average person. So much so that she could now easily break bone like they were twigs. However she preferred to dance across the 'battlefield' or for right now their 'battlefield' was a large mat placed in the center of the living room.

Every morning Lara would wake up and find Khan standing by the mat or the windows, waiting for her. She would stretch and they would fight for hours. Occasionally he would stop and correct her but she hardly ever listened. She did things her way and he did things his. This morning's session was no exception. And she had even caused a small argument to grow between the two. It was entirely her fault; she should have done what Khan instructed her. But she didn't want to just stand on two feet and move around. She wanted to dance; she wanted to move across the field. Lara figured the faster she was, the harder a target she was to hit.

Khan had pinned her to the mat and Lara was instantly hit with that scent. Pine and warm cinnamon, everything about it made her heart flutter and her stomach turn to knots. She was afraid he wouldn't want her but…the video she had just watched certainly shed some light on the subject.

"Don't tell me you broke another chair," Lara turned and saw Khan walking toward her.

She smiled, momentarily distracted by his presence, "It's only worn. No replacement needed this time around."

Khan leaned down over her and checked the leather; "Well that's good news I…" he stopped when he looked up at the monitor.

Lara gasped, she had completely forgotten about the damn recording. She shot out her arm to close the program but was stopped by Khan's hand gripping her wrist. "No! Khan, please! I only found them by chance!"

He wouldn't hear it. Taking her other wrist in his free hand he yanked Lara out of the chair, effectively knocking it over. "You were not supposed to see those." He growled out at her, eyes so intense she felt them begin to pierce a hole into her head.

She shook her head quickly, "I-I'm sorry. Please forgive me! I didn't mean to find them…please don't send me away Khan. You're all I have." Lara popped her mouth shut and felt her heart drop. He wasn't supposed to find out…not like this.

Khan released her arms and walked a few steps away from her, keeping his back to her. "We…cannot think to act that way. It brings only weakness."

"B-but I…I can't survive without you," Lara said, rubbing her wrists which had slight bruises forming around them, "I would destroy myself without you. Please Khan I…I think I might be falling in love with you."

"You…cannot…love me," he clenched his fists, "I am nothing that you deserve."

Lara's voice took on a tone of determination, "You aren't the one who has a say in that," her voice made him turn and face her, "I'm the only one who decides what is right for me. And as of this moment…it is you."

Khan watched her face, like he was trying to figure out what to say. Instead he closed the space between them and gently took her hands in his and examined her wrists, "Already healing. You're body reacted perfectly to the serum."

"Don't try to change the subject…please this is hard enough I don't need you avoiding the topic all together."

He nodded and watched her before asking quietly, "Are you sure about this?"

"About us? No. But…I am sure about how I feel. And how I want to feel-how I _know_ I can feel."

Khan felt a small smile creep onto his face, "Well then how about…" But he never finished his thought. Lara had taken the plunge and crushed her lips onto his.

He reacted immediately, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her body against his. Lara clutched the fabric of his shirt, and raked her fingers through his hair. She moaned and felt his hips grind against hers.

"C-can we just," Lara said pulling back for half a second, "Not talk for about ten or fifteen minutes?"

"Of course," Khan said and resumed his earlier position. He let his hand travel down her back and over her hips. His hand stopped at her thigh and he lifted, feeling her jump up and wrap her legs around his waist.

Khan began moving then, and Lara turned her attentions to his neck, biting and sucking as he carried her to his bedroom. He kicked open the door and dropped Lara onto the bed. She sat up, grabbing at the fabric of his shirt but found it too difficult to just pull it off. Instead she ripped the shirt from the collar down, discarding the pieces and running her hands over his well-toned chest and stomach.

He pushed her back against the bed and pulled her shirt off, along with her bra and pants. Lara stood and quickly pushed him down onto the bed, ripping off his pants as well. She climbed on top of him slowly and kissed a trail up his stomach to his lips. Lara felt him roll them over and she stopped him before going any further.

"Please Khan just," she gently caressed her fingers against his face, "Let me love you."

He smiled down at her, one of his rare and genuine smiles. "Then love me, darling." He wrapped an arm underneath her and held her cheek with his other hand. Leaning down he placed his lips against hers, only this time it was so soft and so full of…affection that Lara realized something right then and there. She was over-the-hill in love with this man, and she would never, ever love anyone as much as she loved this man ever again.

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	4. Chapter 4

**_This is the new chapter I posted last night, but now it's moved back to be placed in the right spot for the timeline of the story. Also thank you sooooo much for the follows and favs and the reviews...cannot thank you all enough for how much you're making me love this story. If you love it, then i love it. _**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara..._**

* * *

Jim led Spock into Pike's office. Both stood and awaited their former captain to speak first. Pike took a bit too long to finally speak to both officers,

"Uneventful." He said Kirk had to strain himself to hear the mumbled word.

"Sir?" Kirk asked him for more clarification on the word.

Pike set down the data pad with the file of Kirk's report on the events of Nibiru. He watched his protégé and continued, "That's how you described, in your captain's log, your survey of the world its inhabitants call Nibiru. Uneventful."

Spock cast a look in the direction of his captain. It was the Vulcan equivalent of pure astonishment. Kirk moved his shoulders by less than half an inch in an imperceptible shrug.

"You know me sir; I like to leave out the meaningless specifics. I'd be the last to overload a captain's log with excessive detail. I didn't want to waste anyone's time going over…"

Pike interrupted Kirk before he continued his amiable account of the mission, "Yeah, tell me more about this volcano. Wasn't it supposed to be highly volatile? On the brink of eruption? In fact it was supposed to erupt any day now."

Kirk kept his face still, "Let's hope it doesn't sir."

The admiral's face was as cold or colder than Jim's, "Something tells me it won't."

"Well, our data could have been wrong. Anything is possible; maybe we read the data wrong."

Pike nodded at him slowly, "Or…maybe it won't erupt because Mr. Spock detonated a cold fusion device into the heart of the volcano right before a civilization that's barely invented the _wheel_ happened to see a _starship _rising out of their ocean," he paused and looked over at the science officer, "Sorry for the condensed version of your report, but that is the way you describe it, is it not?"

Jim felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped onto his shoulders, "You filed a _report_?" he asked his first officer, eyes showing disbelief and hurt.

"Following exploration of a new or lightly contacted world, all individual starship sections are required to file a full report," he looked over at Kirk, "Why would you assume Science would not do the same?"

"I thought you would, of course, but I assumed you'd run it by me first. Why didn't you _tell_ me?"

Spock's voice sounded like he was spouting out his words like a programmed robot, "I incorrectly assumed you would tell the truth in you report."

Kirk's jaw clenched, "I would have if for the fact that I had to _save your life_."

"A fact of which I am immeasurably grateful and the very reason why I felt it necessary to take responsibility…"

Kirk rolled his eyes, "And that would be _so_ noble, if I wasn't the one getting thrown under the bus, Pointy."

"Pointy?" Spock felt both of his brows raise, "Is that an attempt at a derogatory reference to my…"

"_Gentlemen_,"Pike said, standing up from his chair awkwardly, his strong voice cutting the tension between both officers. "As you've obviously forgotten let me remind you that Starfleet's mandate is to explore and observe, and if necessary, to defend. _Not_ to interfere. The Prime Directive is the first thing new cadets memorize—not the last. No matter how stressful the circumstances, I find it difficult to believe it could be forgotten. Or worse, over-looked. The Prime Directive supersedes everything, gentlemen. Even initiative."

Spock was the first to respond, "Had the mission that we set ourselves gone as planned, Admiral, the indigenous sentient species of Nibiru would never have become aware of our interference. Or our presence. The operation was designed from the outset to preserve every aspect of the Prime Directive."

Pike, not happy with the science officer's explanation deadpanned, "That is a technicality."

"I am Vulcan sir, we embrace technicality."

The admiral, who had walked around to stand in front of the Vulcan eyed him dangerously, "Are you giving me attitude son?"

Unfazed by the admiral's look, Spock continued, "I am expressing multiple attitudes simultaneously sir. To which are you referring?"

Pike stared at him for a moment unblinking, realizing then that the Vulcan had yet to grasp the concept of sarcasm, "Out. You're dismissed, Commander."

Spock hesitated, looked at Kirk warily then turned and left without another word.

Pike stayed in his spot, looking at the floor where Spock had just been standing. "Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass you are?" he directed the question to Kirk.

The young captain, seething, kept his voice as even and non-emotional as possible, "I think so sir."

Pike nodded slowly, "Good that's progress I suppose. Now tell me what you did wrong, what's the lesson to be learned here?"

Kirk kept his eyes forward and replied blankly, "Never trust a Vulcan."

The admiral shook his head and let all his irritation pour into his words, "See you can't even answer the damn question without injecting impertinence. Despite what it says on your record, I have to keep reminding myself that you're actually a starship captain. If not for your last-minute heroics in saving Earth from…" he trailed off, lost in the memory of the near destruction of Earth by the nemesis Nero. He straightened and walked up to Kirk, "What it boils down to is that you lied. You lied Jim, you lied on an official report."

Jim watched the admiral and spouted out his explanation, "Sir, the intent of the mission was to observe the relevant rules to the letter. Which we did. Had we not proceeded with the mission it is highly likely a developing, intelligent species would have been wiped out or set back hundreds maybe even thousands of years. The decision to chance revealing our presence was wholly mince. Mr. Spock disagreed and was ready to die for that," Jim's face twisted through several emotions. He was going to say he couldn't let Spock die because he couldn't stand to watch another friend die…but he thought Pike wouldn't want to hear it.

Pike, not satisfied with Kirk's response, scolded him like a child, "No Jim that's just not good enough. You think the rules don't apply to you because you disagree with them."

"With all due respect sir," Jim said, all of his smart-ass comments thrown out the window, "I thought that's why you talked me into signing up in the first place. Why you took a personal interest in my progress. Why you gave me your ship."

The admiral sighed, his shoulders slumping just slightly, "No, I gave you my ship because I saw greatness in you," he paused and stared him dead in the eyes, "She did too you know."

Jim clenched his jaw, "Sir, please I'd rather not bring up that subject."

"Yeah well I'd rather not be scolding you either but you need to hear it. You obviously have forgotten how much Lara believed in you. So much so that she died making sure you were safe," The admiral paused and watched Jim's face contort as he tried to hold back tears, "I know she loved you Jim. I know you felt the same. What would she think of this? What would she say to you after seeing the mess you've created?"

"Sir I…" Jim's voice cracked but he swallowed and regained some composure, "I honestly would rather leave her out of this. She's dead now…I don't think her opinion really matters."

The admiral's jaw clenched and for a moment he too looked like he was holding back tears, "You aren't the only one who grieves her Jim. That girl was the closest thing I had to a daughter," Pike's eyes flickered over to a folded Starfleet flag in a glass case, next to the flag was a picture of him and Lara. She was in her cadet uniform holding up her new Lieutenant's pin, Pike had his arm around her shoulder looking like a proud father. He looked back at Jim and continued, "It's alright for you to miss her Jim. But you can't let her loss govern how you conduct your missions."

Jim kept his face blank as he stared down at Pike, "I don't let any of that get in the way of my decisions. A captain of a starship cannot and does not express their emotions when making judgments on the mission," he locked eyes with Pike and continued his argument, "Lara chose to give her life for the mission. I haven't lost anyone."

Pike shook his head, "Jim how can you say that? You can't suppress your emotions like this. The way you're thinking, you can't be a captain that way."

Jim clenched his fists, "I'm not suppressing anything. I'm the best captain in the whole damn fleet and I haven't lost a single crew member who wasn't willing to give their lives for the mission. I've saved them hundreds of times over, including Commander Spock."

Pike sighed, "Well…now I can see that you haven't got an ounce of humility."

Kirk met his stare and defended himself, "What was I supposed to do? Let Spock _die_? No, I couldn't watch another friend go like that…not again."

"You're missing the point."

Jim felt his voice rise, "No I don't think I am sir. What would you have done?"

"I wouldn't have risked my first officer _in the first place_. You were supposed to survey a planet-not alter its destiny. You violated a dozen Starfleet regulations and almost got everyone under you command killed!"

"Except I didn't!" Kirk defended himself. "The only crewmember I've ever lost was during a botched mission and there was nothing that could have been done to save her…as much as I hate that fact it's the truth. As for Nibiru I had the opportunity to save Spock and I took it…"

Pike cut him off, "That's your problem. You think you're infallible. You think you can't make a mistake. There's a pattern with you, that the rules are for other people."

"Yeah well some should be," Jim muttered to himself.

Ignoring the snarky comment Pike continued, "And what's worse is you're using blind luck to justify your playing God," both men fell into silence for a moment and Pike continued when he was calmed down enough to speak evenly, "Now given the circumstances, this has been brought to Admiral Marcus's attention. He convened a special tribunal, to which I was not invited. You understand what Starfleet regulations mandate be done at this point."

Jim watched the admiral as he thought to all the possibilities of punishment for breaking the Prime Directive. Finally, it dawned on him what would be done.

Pike, with a sullen nod confirmed what Jim had been fearing, "They've taken the Enterprise away from you. And they're sending you back to the Academy."

Jim felt his heart drop, "Admiral Pike, please I…" he tried to defend himself, although he knew that his efforts were futile. The decision was too far up, and there was nothing he could do.

"No," Pike said with a shake of his hand. He was done with Kirk for now, he was, hurt, angry and frustrated with him and not willing to anything else the young man might have to say, "I'm not going to listen. Why should I listen when you don't listen to anyone but yourself? No Jim! I'm not hearing anything else!"

Jim shut his mouth, realizing his attempts at persuading Pike to his side were useless. The admiral continued in calmer manner, "You don't comply to the rules. You don't take responsibility for anything. And you don't-respect-the-chair. You know why? Because you're not ready for it. Lara believed in you, she was the one who convinced me to give you the chair in the first place…I'm afraid she might have been wrong."

His last words made Jim's heart shatter. He felt his shoulders slump and his throat close up. Now the tears were sure to fall. Pike dismissed him and Jim left without another word…he needed a drink-five minutes ago-he needed a very, very strong drink.

Pike sat at his chair resting his bad leg. He sighed and rubbed his forehead trying to prevent the oncoming headache. He felt bad for the kid. But Jim needed to realize how serious his mistake was. And using Lara to do that…was probably the hardest thing he'd ever done. He missed the girl…he was sure that if she was alive that by now she would have been promoted to commander. Again he found his eyes travel to the picture of him and Lara. She was so strong and smart, everything he'd ever wanted in a daughter. He remembered her funeral, how he had been presented with the flag. He cried that day for the first time in a very long time. There was no body, they had to say goodbye to an empty casket.

Jim hadn't shed a tear, the pilot Sulu had and so did the Russian kid Chekov. McCoy, the doctor and also a close friend of hers had cried. Uhura was probably the worst next to himself. They were both broken up. Later he found out that Uhura considered her one of her only real friends…it seemed every officer of the Enterprise felt a close friendship with Lara. _Barely a year you're gone and you've still got his attention, _he thought smiling over at the picture fondly.

Pike sighed and closed his eyes, a lone tear escaping and falling down his cheek. He had a bad feeling that the rest of his day would go about as good as the news he just gave Jim...painfully.

* * *

James Kirk entered the rusty, quiet bar and plopped himself down at a stool near the middle. Getting the bartender's attention he ordered his usual, top-shelf whiskey on the rocks. The bartender set the circular glass down, dropped an ice sphere into it and then poured the golden brown liquid over it. Jim nodded and asked he leave the bottle, which he did and Jim eagerly gulped down his first drink of many for the night.

Old, sad blues music echoed in the background, quiet conversation and laughter joined in and mixed with the gloomy sounds of the guitars. Jim poured himself another glass and looked over to his right. There was a beautiful woman sitting a few seats down from him. She smiled sweetly at him, and Jim returned it. Ever since Lara's death he had showered himself in emotionless connections with random women. None of them ever helped him forget about Lara, but he did feel better…at least that's what he tried to tell himself.

When Lara died, a piece of Jim died as well. She was his love, his best friend…how could he just move on from that? It has been a little over a year since she died and yes Jim was getting better but damn was it tough getting over a loss like that. He knew she would want him to be happy. But then there was that strange message. Jim had convinced himself it was a fake, just some cruel joke…but what if it was real? What if that letter had really been from her?

Shoving aside the feelings and questions he turned back to the unnamed woman and made to introduce himself but stopped when the form of a charcoal clad uniform came in between them. Jim sighed, and looked down at his glass, "How did you find me?"

"I know you better than you think," Pike nodded at the bartender ordering himself a glass of whatever Jim was having. "You know the first time I found you was in a dive like this. Remember that? You got your ass handed to you…you and Lara both."

Jim gulped down another drink, "It wasn't like that."

"Really? Cause if I remember correctly it was an epic beating."

"No it wasn't," he said, chuckling as he watched his hands gently hold the cold glass.

"You had napkins hangin' out of your nose," Pike said without remorse.

Jim laughed at the memory of the napkins sticking out of his nose, "Yeah…that was a good fight."

"A good fight," the admiral nodded, "I think that's your problem right there." Kirk frowned and looked at his mentor. Pike continued, "They gave her back to me. The Enterprise."

"Congratulations," Jim managed to say, "Watch your back with that first officer, though."

"No," Pike said shaking his head, "Spock's not going to be working with me. He's been transferred. USS Bradbury." Jim nodded, returning to his drink but was completely shocked when he heard the admiral say, "You're going to be my First."

Kirk gaped at him, "W-what?"

"Yeah, Marcus took some convincing. But every now and then I can make a good case."

"What uh…what did you tell him?"

"The truth. That I believe in you. That if anybody deserves a second chance, it's Jim Kirk," he paused and said softly, "I did it because Lara believed in second chances. She was the one who always believed in you. And I know she would be proud of you."

Jim turned his head away from his mentor, fighting back his emotions, "I don't know what to say."

A gentle, knowing smile crossed Pike's face, "Now that _is_ a first," when he noticed Jim's red rimmed eyes he patted his shoulder, "It's gonna be okay son."

Pike made to say more but stopped when he heard his communicator beep. He flipped it open and frowned, "Emergency session, Daystrom. That's us," he stood and patted the young man's shoulder again, "Suit up."

"Yeah." Kirk mumbled, downing the rest of his drink and following after his new captain.

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	5. Chapter 5

**_Warning! There will be adult content at the end of the chapter. If you haven't noticed I changed the rating from T to M. If you don't like it then skip it but if you don't mind then go ahead and read it, your choice. ALSO have you seen my new story banners? Pretty awesome right? I can thank theyoungin19 for those :D however just because I have those as my story banners does not mean I won't accept any other entries. Feel free to share your fanart (if you have any) and I will then share it with everyone else!_**

**_Ok I'll stop talking now. Enjoy the read!_**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. I only own Lara..._**

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Thomas Harewood reached out and clicked off his alarm clock. It read five o'clock in the morning...time to start the day...he thought as his large dog Quinn jumped up on his bed and made himself comfortable. Rida, his wife, leaned up on her elbows and patted Quinn affectionately as she watched her husband begin to go through the motions...like every other morning.

They traveled the two hour car ride to the hospital in silence, both afraid that if they speak all their worst fears might come true. As they pulled up the children's hospital, Rida felt her heart drop. Something was wrong...she just knew something was going to go wrong.

Doctor Nathan Wallace greeted them at the entrance. Rida clutched the new plush toy to her chest and felt her husband stand behind her. "I'm sorry but...there's nothing more we can do," Wallace said to them with a sullen expression, "At most, your daughter has a week to live. We will let you move her to your apartment in London so she can be at home...with her family."

Thomas nodded and felt Rida tremble as he guided her away from the Doctor and toward their daughter's room. Their baby girl, Olivia, was in the exact same place they had left her. Her last new toy, untouched and her sheets undisturbed. Rida replaced Olivia's old toy with the new one and watched her daughter's sleeping form before she broke down.

Sobbing she kissed Olivia's head and leaned on her chest, grasping her daughter's limp hand, she cried out all her frustrations. Thomas watched from the end of the bed, fighting back the tears he knew would fall. Unable to handle the tension in the room anymore he left to get some fresh air, and walked outside, leaning against the stone and cursing the world for causing him so much pain.

"I can save her."

Thomas heard a voice from behind him. Turning around he saw a man with dark hair, and pale green eyes. "Who are you?"

* * *

Lara stood by their car, watching the people move in and out of the hospital. Most had faces of despair or agony. She scowled at them. The whole place was depressing...she hated them all.

Looking back up at the entrance she saw Khan walking down the steps towards her. His trench coat closed and collar pulled up around his neck to block out the chilly air. "How did it go?" she asked moving to the passenger side of the car and slipping inside.

"He agreed to the terms," Khan said turning on the car and pulling out of the hospital driveway.

"When does it happen?" she asked, drumming her fingers against her legs.

"Tomorrow morning. You will be in San Francisco by then," he waited for her to affirm the plan but when she didn't he glanced over at her, "Right Lara?"

She looked at him and chewed her lip, "Yes...yes I will be waiting. Just like we planned."

A tense silence fell over the two as he drove them back to the city. Lara looked out her window and shook her head. She couldn't believe she was acting so...weak. Her and Khan had planned this for months, they knew what the other had to do but she was just so...afraid that something might go wrong.

"You can talk to me Lara." Khan said noticing her look of concern and tense shoulders.

She watched his face, "You won't like it."

Lara was surprised when he reached over and took both her hands into one of his, "Please darling, talk to me," he almost...pleaded with her.

"I...I'm afraid Khan," Lara entwined her fingers into his with one hand and used the other to gently rub the skin of his forearm, "What will happen to me when I'm all alone without you there to keep me grounded? What if I mess it up? What if I kill Marcus before the time is right?"

"You won't Lara. I trust you to carry out the mission as we discussed. All you have to do is make sure I'm not shot down before I can get the attention of the survivors...and send our message to Marcus."

She nodded, "I want you to kill him. Slowly...painfully," leaning back in her seat Lara continued, "I want to watch you crush him...make him suffer."

A comfortable silence fell over the two and Khan looked next to him and found Lara had her eyes closed. He didn't say anything and let her sleep, still keeping his hand in hers and moving his thumb across her skin softly.

Eventually they pulled into the city of London. Khan gently shook Lara awake and parked next to a transport station. He turned off the vehicle and waited for Lara to make the first move. She took a deep breath, checked her hair and make-up in the mirror and got out of the car.

Lara pulled her black leather jacket closed to prevent the chilly London air from hitting her. Khan walked around and guided her to the transport station where they purchased a one-way ticket to San Francisco, California.

The shuttle was leaving in the next few minutes so Lara had to suffer the quick goodbye instead of the lingering one she had hoped for. She watched the shuttle and it's passengers for a second longer then turned to Khan who had his hand outstretched with a small black duffle in it.

Lara took the bag and stared up at him, "Promise me."

"Promise you...what?"

She stepped up to him and took a handful of his jacket, "Doesn't matter. Just say that you promise me."

Khan's eyes softened at the corners, he covered her hand with his and said tenderly, "I promise Lara."

Smiling she leaned up and softly touched her lips to his. He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and briefly deepened the kiss. Lara pulled back before she decided to stay and turned around, walking onto the shuttle without another word or glance back at him.

Stepping onto the shuttle she found herself a seat by the window and watched out. Her eyes found Khan's and she flashed a smile at him, pressing her hand against the glass and mouthing the words, "I love you."

Khan nodded at her, so subtly and so quickly, only Lara could see. Then he turned and got back in his car, driving off.

"Was that your boyfriend?" Lara looked over and saw a young girl, no more than eighteen years old with wide, eager eyes watching Khan's car drive away.

"Husband actually," Lara held up her left hand, on her third finger was a simple titanium band. Her and Khan hadn't actually gotten married but she had changed her name to Lara Harrison and posed as his wife. She did like the idea of it though.

"Wow...sorry but he was really cute. How long have you two been married then?" The girl's large, blue eyes irritated Lara and her bouncy blonde curls...Lara wanted to rip them off.

However as much as Lara wanted to staple the girl's mouth shut she decided to play along. It might be fun after all. Lara smiled at her and lied through her teeth, "About three years now."

"That is so sweet! How did you two meet each other?" The girl bounced giddily and turned her body to face Lara completely.

"At a bar actually. But not like you think. See he saved my life that night," Lara spewed out her story like it was her own. When it was really the plot of some cheesy movie she had watched several weeks ago.

"Saved your life? How?"

"Well I was walking out, it was a bit later for me than normal but my apartment was only about a block away so I wasn't that worried...until a few guys from the bar started following me."

The girl gasped and covered her mouth and Lara had to fight back a crazy grin at how good her lie was going over.

"Exactly, basically the men followed me and luckily my husband-John-was going home too. Well he stopped the men from following me by pretending to be my boyfriend," Lara watched the girl's eyes seem to pop out of her face and she continued, "So John grabs me and just...kisses me and says, 'glad to see you got home darling'."

"Oh my gosh! That is so cute and romantic!" she bounced and giggled at the story.

"As you can tell it obviously worked in his favor," Lara grinned and held up her hand again. Looking over the girl she realized the outfit she was wearing. "You are from Starfleet?"

"Hmm? Oh yes I am. Just security though, I'm being transferred to work at headquarters," she straightened out her uniform and then held out a hand, "Anne Thomas, nice to meet you..."

Lara took her hand and shook, "Lara Harrison, nice to meet you as well."

The shuttle took off and Lara leaned back in her seat anticipating the long flight. "If you don't mind me asking," Anne's voice said over the noise of the other passengers, "Why are you flying out to San Francisco?"

More lying...this girl will not have a happy ending, Lara thought as she kindly smiled over at her. "My mother called, said something about my brother being in trouble. I wasn't sure if it was true or not...mom tends to be a bit well, dramatic so I'm heading over for a few days to see what is going on."

"That's why you're in London then?" Anne asked her, stretching out her legs.

Lara sighed and gritted her teeth; if she had to keep talking to this stupid girl the whole flight...she might kill her before the shuttle even landed. "Yeah, I moved as far away from home as I could. But I'm happy now, found a new family and a new life. I just don't want mom to keep bothering me so I'm going over there to make sure she stops bothering me...for good."

The rest of the shuttle ride carried on like this. Small talk and having to constantly come up with ridiculous lies began to grate at Lara's patience but finally after what felt like ages, the shuttle began to descend.

Everyone got off the shuttle and even Anne said a pleasant goodbye to Lara. "See you soon," Lara whispered and grinned as she turned and walked in the opposite direction.

She made her way around the back of Starfleet headquarters and slipped into an open warehouse door. She walked toward the door that would lead to the busy lobby and took a moment to calm her racing heart. Backing into a corner, she pulled out her small communicator and held it in her hands waiting for the call to come from Khan.

Lara checked her clothes. Black tights, black knee high combat boots and white cowl necked sweater. She zipped up her jacket and pulled her hair back into a messy pony tail. She hoped that to the passing eye she looked like a simple civilian working at HQ, or that no one would see her at all.

Finally her communicator beeped and she looked down at it. There was simply a message on it that read "Go now". Standing she exited the room and walked out into the busy lobby. Officers and cadets and members of every rank walked back and forth across the lobby. Lara acted like she belonged and walked with confidence so as to not raise any suspicion about her being there.

As she walked through the lobby she glanced around at all the faces and caught sight of two people she didn't think she would see so quickly. Walking into the building was her former commander, Spock and her former captain and lover...James T. Kirk.

Lara walked past them, and flashed her eyes over to them one more time. She caught Spock's eyes and he had a look of confusion on his face, like he didn't believe what he was seeing. Lara moved into a lift, her back to the entrance and looked over her shoulder at him, winking and giving him a manic grin.

She waited for the lift to stop and when it did she moved to a corner of the large meeting room she had stepped onto. Making sure no one was around she lifted her shirt to reveal a metal belt with a circular device on it. She twisted the buckle and when it flashed blue light at her she pressed the center of it...activating her camouflage.

Not a minute later Kirk and Spock walked out of a lift and she couldn't help but listen in on their conversation, following behind them quietly, "It all boils down to one thing Spock," Kirk said coldly, "You wrote a report, and as a result I lost my ship."

Spock took a moment to digest his former captain's meaning, "I see now that I should have alerted you about the report I submitted."

Kirk took a deep, calming breath, "This isn't about the report. You just don't get it do you?"

The Vulcan made to reply but was-rather unfortunately- interrupted. "Commander Spock. Captain Frank Abbott, USS Bradbury. Guess you're with me now."

Spock nodded at him and his new captain went to take his seat at the large conference table. Spock looked back at Kirk.

"The truth is," Jim said sighing, "I'm gonna miss you."

The Vulcan opened his mouth to speak but found himself at a loss for words. Jim rolled his eyes and sighed, leaving the commander to stare after him…a look of slight confusion on his face. After a moment Spock followed after and took his seat by Captain Abbott, sitting across from Kirk.

Lara giggled at Spock's utter confusion. So silly those two…too bad they might die. She stayed near the entrance and watched the lights begin to dim as Marcus brought the meeting to a start. The light from the monitors set in front of the gathered officers gave the room an eerily calm look, and Lara grinned knowing that soon the room would dissolve into pure chaos.

"Thank you for convening on such short notice. By now all of you have heard what happened in London. The target was a Starfleet 'data' archive. Now it's a damn hole in the ground and forty-two men and women are dead. One hour ago I received a message from a Starfleet officer who confessed to carrying out this attack, and that he was being forced to do it by this man,"

On each screen, a picture of 'John Harrison' popped up. Lara thought the picture didn't quite capture Khan's true persona but then again 'John Harrison' wasn't real. Marcus continued his report,

"Commander John Harrison. We also have reason to believe he is not working alone," now another picture came up on their screens. This one was taken from a security camera. It showed her and Khan. The screens flicked between several images. Each of her and Khan, the first was him holding out the bag for her, the second of her taking the bag and the third of the two sharing a kiss. Lara spared a moment to think that she would like the third for a personal keepsake…they looked very nice in the photo.

"This woman was formerly known as Lara Nicole Sheppard, also one of our own. She was KIA about a year ago and has recently resurfaced under the name Lara Harrison. She was not seen at the London bombing unlike her partner but we have reason to believe she is somewhere in San Francisco. She was last seen getting on and off this shuttle. We have teams working around the clock to locate and take her down so we can question her and if possible, prevent any other bombings." Another picture of Lara stepping down from the shuttle she took…and little Anne Thomas bouncing down in front of her. She felt her skin crawl when she thought back to that horrible conversation she had had.

Lara spared a glance at Kirk and saw he had his jaw clenched. He looked so…shocked to see her on the screen. Pike gave him a look, like they both couldn't believe what either was seeing. Marcus's voice echoed against the walls as he brought up pictures of the site of the bombing, "This man is responsible for this act of savagery, and we have reason to believe Mrs. Harrison had something to do with it. For reasons unknown, these two have just declared war against Starfleet."

"Five minutes after the explosion in London, Harrison commandeered the jumpship that you see and made a run for it. Despite the confusion attendant upon the destruction, security was able to locate him only moments after his departure. We had him on our scanners until he entered orbit then—"

"Any idea where he might be headed sir?" one of the officers questioned.

Admiral Marcus shook his head, "The natural assumption is that he's not operating alone. You are all aware that there are numerous entities human and otherwise who would be delighted to see Starfleet's operational capabilities impaired. Whether the Harrisons are doing this for reasons of their own or on behalf of as-yet-known forces, we have no way of knowing. Until individually eliminated, all possibilities must be considered. Bearing that in mind, under no circumstances are we to allow these terrorists to escape Federation space."

The scrolling images of John Harrison and his partner Lara Harrison were replaced with a map of the surrounding star systems. "You here tonight represent the senior command of all Starfleet vessels in the region, whether for R&R, refurbishment, or other reasons. As of now, your ships are recalled to full active duty. Those whose crews…"

Lara stopped listening after a while. They weren't exactly giving away classified information and she was finding herself growing bored just standing and watching. She let her eyes travel over the gathered officers. Kirk seemed to be ignoring Marcus and instead was focusing on his screen. Lara watched him, curious as to if he would connect the dots or not, he was always a fairly smart farm boy.

"Wonder what they had in their bags?" she saw him murmur to Pike, her former mentor.

"Keep your mouth shut," Pike quickly scolded him a bit louder, loud enough that Marcus was able to hear.

"Everything okay Chris?" Marcus asked him.

All eyes were on Admiral Pike and his new first officer, even Lara's eyes were locked on the pair. "Yes sir," Pike said calmly, "Mr. Kirk is just acclimating himself to his new position as my first officer."

Marcus didn't buy it, "If you've got something to say, Kirk, say it. Tomorrow's too late."

Lara watched Jim swallow down his pride and felt her crazy grin creep onto her face. "I'm fine sir." Kirk's voice carried over the tense silence of the room.

Again Marcus didn't buy it, "Spit it out son, don't be shy."

Before speaking Kirk gave Pike a questioning look, who simply nodded at him, telling him to speak. Jim turned back to Marcus. "Sir…I was just wondering. Why the archive? All that information is public record. If they really wanted to damage Starfleet," he paused as he began to realize something, "This could just be the beginning."

"The beginning of what Mr. Kirk?" Marcus asked, staring down the table at the young officer.

"Sir, in the event of an attack, protocol mandates that if possible, senior command gather here at…Starfleet headquarters…" he trailed off and Lara grinned again…_now you're getting it_, she thought.

"Admiral Marcus," she heard Spock say, "It is curious that Harrison would commandeer a jumpship with no warp capability if his intention was to escape…" but he trailed off his thought as a deep, piercing red light rose and reflected into the room.

Lara held back a crazy laugh when she saw the red lights of Khan's ship beam into the room. Kirk stood up and looked out the window, then turned around and shouted, "Clear the room!"

That's when Khan started his attack and Lara began hers. She opened up her bag and pulled out several flash bang grenades. She tossed them in every direction and then when she was sure each was thrown she deactivated her cloaking device. Reaching into the bag she pulled out two black phasers, both of Khan's design, and began firing on the rest of the officers that Khan was missing.

"We need security in here now! We need anti air support!" Lara looked over and saw Pike crawling across the floor. He glanced around and met eyes with Lara who simply flashed him her manic grin then returned to her task, which was to keep Khan's ship up as long as possible.

She turned when she heard shouting come from behind her and saw a large group of security officers run into the room. Lara turned her guns toward them. They all started firing at her but she swiftly dodged their phaser bolts. Jumping and tumbling she closed the distance to her new targets.

Lara stood and holstered her weapons, choosing for a more hands on approach to dispatching her enemies. One security officer tried to stun her but she was simply pushed back. Shaking off the blast she grinned at him and then ducked down, kicking out her leg and knocking his feet from underneath him.

As he fell his weapon slid over to her and she picked it up, set it to kill, and shot him in the head. "Lara?" she heard what she thought was Spock shout her name over the noise but she ignored it. It wasn't Khan, and it wasn't important.

She turned her new weapon onto the rest of the security team and quickly took them all out, holding out the weapon with one arm. That's when she felt someone smash their gun into the back of her head. Lara turned around and found her little shuttle friend, Anne Thomas.

"Annie!" Lara grinned at her, "Look at what a small world this is!" Anne tried to shoot her in the chest but Lara knocked away the gun, "Now Annie that is no way to treat a new friend! You've made me very angry."

"P-please...I..." Anne tried to plead for her life but Lara only watched her with wild eyes.

"Sorry sweetie but you are a part of Starfleet," Lara said and swung her fist into Anne's stomach knocking her over, "And if you haven't realized...I hate Starfleet." Lara bent down and pulled out her phaser and held it to the girl's temple.

Again Anne tried to plead and beg but Lara only shook her head, "It'll be quick...no pain at all." Then she pulled the trigger and watched Anne's lifeless body hit the floor.

That's when she heard a loud, shattering noise and looked up to see Khan's ship begin to sputter and fail. Lara stood and ran around the corner to find Kirk standing by an open window watching Khan's ship.

Lara pulled out her phaser and shot a bolt, sending it right past Kirk's head. He flinched and looked at her, his eyes going wide, "L-Lara?"

She smiled at him deliriously and made to say something but she heard her device beep. Looking down at her belt buckle she saw it flash orange light at her. Lara shot her eyes back up at Kirk and holstered her weapon. She gave him a half salute and then turned and ran for the window.

"Lara wait!" she heard Kirk call after her and she jumped out of the window. She ignored him and fell, watching the lights of Khan's transporter dance in front of her eyes. Lara closed them and waited until she heard the sounds of Kronos echo around her.

Opening them she found the desolate planet Kronos surrounding her. "Lara."

She turned and found Khan standing a ways off with his hood up. Without a thought she ran over him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Did it work?" Lara asked as she felt Khan's strong grip on her back.

"I believe so," he looked down at her and held her face with his hands, "Come on, we need to get out of sight."

Lara nodded and let him lead her into a small, enclosed room that protected them from the harsh winds and even harsher cold. "Will they come after us? Will Marcus come?"

Khan had her sit on a small bench and he stood above her, checking her for any wounds, "He will...hmm you were shot at then?" he asked holding up her arms to check for any burns.

"Well yes of course but I avoided them. Starfleet doesn't train their people very well. I took care of them all quite easily." Lara stood and pulled out her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders.

"You should take off your jacket." Khan said slipping his off and tossing it aside.

Lara watched him with a confused expression as he walked up to her and began to unzip it himself, "Why?"

"Because I just watched you decimate and entire room of people," he slipped the jacket off her shoulders and threw it off to the side, "Watching you fight...stirs my desire for you."

Khan shoved her against the wall and crushed his lips on hers. Lara immediately responded, clawing at his back and wrapping her legs around his waist. She felt his tongue slip inside her mouth and his hips grind into hers.

Lara moaned and pulled Khan closer, digging her fingers into his dark hair. She started grabbing at the edge of his shirt but when he wouldn't move she took the lead and dropped her legs to the floor. Using her strength she shoved him backwards and watched him with hungry, wild eyes.

Lara backed up and then ran at him, knocking him over and onto the floor. They fell with a loud thud but neither felt the pain of the fall. Their genetically enhanced bodies stronger and more resistant than the normal human.

She leaned up and yanked off his shirt as his hands clawed and grabbed everything he could reach. Lara helped him and pulled off her own sweater, leaning back down she began to bite and suck his chest and neck. Khan's hands traveled down her back and rested at the base of her thighs, squeezing and grinding up into her.

Lara moved her hands and unhooked her bra, throwing it off to join the pile of gathering clothing. Khan flipped them over and kicked off his shoes as Lara did the same. She dragged her nails down his back; digging so deep she left deep red marks all across his pale skin.

He felt her nails scratch and move across his chest and down his stomach. Khan moved his lips to her neck and began to bite and suck, causing Lara to moan loudly. She moved her hand down his stomach and into the waist of his pants until her hand found what she was looking for.

Khan moaned into her skin as Lara began moving her hand up and down his hard member. She felt his hips jerk toward her hand and stopped before she felt him go over the edge.

Lara grunted and moved her hands to his shoulders, shoving him over and resuming her position above him. She grinned down at him and moved her lips over his mouth, hovering just enough that he could just about touch his lips to hers. Lara pulled back when he reached out to kiss her and grinned. She started kissing his neck, and then began leaving a trail of bites and kisses down his chest.

She stopped at the edge of his pants and began to slowly pull down the zipper, kissing a trail after it. Khan leaned his head back and held down a moan...she would not win this one. He sat up on his elbows and watched her slowly, so agonizingly slowly, pull his pants down his legs.

When he was fully exposed to her he took his moment and reached out to grab her from under her arms, practically throwing her back onto the floor and fumbling with her own pants. He yanked them down and pulled her to him by the ankle, "I am in control," he growled at her, causing a wave of desire to hit Lara like a brick wall.

She grinned up at him and swiftly reached her hand down, taking his member into her hand, "Only when I say you are." Lara smiled and rolled over on top of him. She felt him at her opening, heard him groan in desire and need.

Khan couldn't wait any longer, he grabbed her hips and shoved himself inside of her causing a loud, screeching moan to escape Lara's throat. She arched her back and pressed her hands onto his hard stomach. Grinding into him with his hands squeezing fresh bruises into her skin.

Lara leaned down and kissed him fiercely, mashing her lips onto his. Khan felt her sit up and pull him with him. He fell over on top of her and bucked his hips, pounding into her.

She clawed at every inch of him, arching her back and wrapping a leg around one of his, the other was being held up by Khan's hand, his fingers digging into the skin of her thigh.

Lara's moans grew louder with each thrust, she could feel herself getting closer and closer. "Khan...please I'm going to..." she moaned again, this time nearly screaming.

He flipped her onto her stomach and entered her from behind, wrapping an arm around her front and using the other to keep himself up. Lara moaned and screeched as she fell over the edge and Khan possessively bit down on her left shoulder as he too felt himself finish, letting out a low masculine groan.

They laid still for a moment longer until Khan gently pulled out of her and reached for the thin blanket he had packed for their stay on Kronos. He pulled it over to where he had left Lara. She turned over onto her back and helped him lay the blanket over them. They settled in and lay still for a moment, Lara with her head resting on his chest and their legs tangled.

"How come you never told me fighting is a turn on?" Lara asked glancing up at him.

"It never came up before. And it was only when I saw you fight," he rubbed her back, "It almost looked like you were dancing."

"Oh, so I'm good then?"

"Yes Lara, you are very good," Khan paused then she felt his body tense, "I also was a bit...fearful during the attack."

"Fearful? How?"

"I...was afraid you might be hurt or that I might...lose you," he confessed to her. Lara leaned up then and looked into his eyes,

"You will never lose me Khan. I will always be with you...to the end."

He watched her eyes for a moment longer then pulled her to him and kissed her lips softly. Lara smiled at him then resumed her earlier position, resting her head against his chest.

"One step closer Khan. We are one step closer to getting our revenge." Lara said, dancing her fingers across his well-toned chest.

Khan nodded and ran his fingers through her hair, "Yes darling. One step closer."

* * *

_Thanks for reading! Lots of love!_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Ok for those who have been following the progress of this story so far then this is the newest chapter. Wrote it last night and everything :) lots of action in this chapter, hope you enjoy it!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**_

* * *

Jim sat by his apartment window, back to the view which showed him the wreckage of Harrison's attack the night before. He stared at the floor, unable to believe what he saw. The pictures were real and they weren't lying. Lara was alive. But she was alive and working with that bastard Harrison…she had even married him.

What the hell happened to her? She was dead, he watched that place burn to the ground with her still inside. He remembered the way she had smiled at him…like a lunatic might smile at you. She could have killed him though, there was a clear shot…so why didn't she? And the way she had just leaped out of that window. The damn window was eighty stories high and she just jumped without any hesitation…something was very, very wrong here. Jim knew she wouldn't just kill innocent people like that, she wasn't like Harrison she was not anything like the bastard.

Jim's communicator called his attention, "Yeah?" he said looking down at the unit in his hand.

"Jim," Scotty's voice came through, "I just searched the wreckage, you're not gonna believe what I found. You've got ta come down here right away."

* * *

Jim met up with Spock who had also been contacted by Scotty. They hurriedly walked through HQ but started running toward their engineer when they saw him,

"Scotty! Please tell me you've got something." Jim said breathless. Scotty hefted a piece of debris into his captain's arms,

"This was recovered from the jumpship,"

Kirk looked down at the scorched piece in his arms, "So what is this? What am I looking at?"

Scotty sighed, "Well if I'm right and I almost always am…this is a transwarp beamin device. No wonder the scrap iron boys cutting apart that mess o' a jumpship didn't recognize it."

"Well is there any way we can recover where he went?"

"I already did sir," Scotty's voice took on a solemn tone, "And you're not gonna like it."

The engineer reached out and tapped the screen until one readout was seen on it. It displayed a simple number: 2314-3456.

Kirk felt his heart drop, he knew exactly what it meant…and he did not like it. Not one bit.

* * *

Lara woke to find their make-shift bed absent her partner. She looked around and heard the sounds of a shower turning on. Smiling and stretching she sat up and made to join him. She was surprised to find a decent shower in the tiny abandoned…apartment like building they had taken refuge in. However she was grateful, she needed a warm shower after yesterday's fight. As much as she had enjoyed it, she did smell of metal and sweat.

Opening the door she saw Khan standing with his back to her as the water poured down his back, he leaned against the wall using his hands for support. Lara, still naked from the previous night's ventures and pleasures, stepped in behind him. The scorching water burned her skin but she ignored the pain and ran her hands up his back, easing out any tension she could feel.

She planted soft kisses to his back and let the water run down her face, wetting her hair in the process. Khan turned around then and gave her a small smile. He took her face in his hands and gently kissed her, "Sleep well?" he asked beginning to move his hands through her hair, pulling out the knots.

"Well enough. And you?" she questioned him back, reaching for a bar of soap she began to run it across his chest.

"Alright I suppose," he looked down at her and watched her trail soap all over his skin, "You look like you want something."

Lara tossed the soap bar over her shoulder, "Thought you'd never notice," she grabbed his shoulders and kissed him again, this time with a hunger and fierceness that made even Khan's knees go weak.

He returned the kiss eagerly and let her push him against the wall. "You know Khan," she said dragging her nails down his chest and stomach, "I don't think I'll ever get tired of this."

* * *

Lara pulled on her boots and checked her hair, also pulling it up into a messy pony tail. She checked her hair in the mirror, the top part had a slight bubble and she had pieces falling out on all sides. The hair sticking out of the band also bubbled up and out and tapered down, ending just at the middle of her shoulder blades.

She adjusted her shirt, a white, long-sleeved shirt with a faded Starfleet symbol on the shoulder. Scowling, Lara tried to scratch off the emblem even more but found it was pointless. Stepping out of the bathroom, Lara pulled on her black leather jacket, which stopped at the waist and had an attachable hood with it. She pulled the zipper up, which ran diagonally across her body starting at her right hip and ending at her left shoulder.

Walking out of the bathroom she found Khan fully dressed in his trench coat, black shirt and black pants and shoes. He had his scarf around his neck and was pulling on a pair of black, fingerless gloves. He handed a pair of white fingerless gloves to Lara who took them without a word and put them on. They needed to move to a different section of this abandoned area before the patrols came around. Even though the Klingons would probably like to have two rouge humans around, neither Khan nor Lara wanted to risk being seen.

They both pulled up their hoods, "Ready?" Khan asked her.

Lara nodded and reached up to kiss him for a brief moment, "I'm ready."

He had his hand on the door when they heard a voice echo against the walls and surfaces, _"Attention John and Lara Harrison," _Lara looked up and recognized the voice immediately. That was Hikaru Sulu, the Enterprise's pilot.

The ensign continued his message, _"This is Captain Hikaru Sulu of the USS Enterprise. We are aware of your present location and in position to bear on it from a distance. A group of highly trained officers is on its way to your location. If you do not prepare and agree to surrender yourself to them immediately upon their arrival, I am instructed to unleash an entire payload of advanced, long-range, undetectable torpedoes that is currently locked on you location. I must inform you that we are prepared to do this despite any possible diplomatic fallout or other reaction from Klingon community." _He paused, and when he spoke again his voice sounded more threatening, _"If you test me, you will fail."_

Lara watched Khan and found his breathing increase as the Captain finished. Then he fiercely screamed, throwing his hand into the wall opposite himself, leaving a large dent where his fist entered it. Khan stood in front of the wall and kept his hand planted firmly into the concrete, arm shaking from the anger he felt coursing through his body.

"Those wouldn't happen to be the torpedoes you used to conceal the crew," Lara inquired but when Khan didn't respond she nodded, "They are. Marcus is using them against us…he knows what our weakness is."

"We don't know for sure."

"Khan no one else in Starfleet is capable enough to design a missile like that…you know I'm right."

He straightened up, shaking off the debris of the wall, "I know."

Lara walked over to him and took his fist into her hands, "What are we going to do?"

"We will surrender," Khan said to her, then wrapped a hand around the back of her neck he forced her eyes to look at him, "You _will_ surrender. I cannot watch you die Lara, you are my family now as well."

She smiled up at him and made to say something but stopped when they heard distant firefighting. Lara looked up and strained her ears, "Klingon vessel, D-4 class and a…K'Normian vessel. I can only assume the K'Normian vessel is our ride."

"And they're being attacked by the Klingons…brilliant," Khan said dropping his bag and opening it. He hefted out a large gun, designed to be mounted on a tripod but Khan easily carried it across his shoulder. He pulled another assault rifle and then handed Lara her weapons. Two black phaser pistols and one very large knife she had stolen from a Klingon merchant several months back. The knife was sharp, and she loved how it gleamed and winked at her in the light. She placed the knife in the holster on the outside of her right thigh and put the phasers in their place, each resting on her hips.

Khan satisfied that she was ready, held her chin with his hand and kissed her passionately. "Stay close to me."

Lara smiled up at him, "I'll do my best."

* * *

Khan led Lara through the shadows at the back of the large open area. They both crouched down behind a fallen pillar and watched a squad of Klingons and one lone human. _Uhura,_ Lara recognized the officer almost immediately. She remembered from before how close they were…almost like sisters. _She'll get herself killed…too bad, she was kind of nice before._ Lara thought as she watched what looked like an attempt at negotiation.

But she knew it had failed when the Klingon commander grabbed Uhura by the throat, lifting her feet off the ground. "Can we start shooting now?" Lara asked her partner impatiently.

Khan nodded and stood up quickly pulling the trigger on his weapon, killing the Klingon commander. Lara soon joined him, pulling out her phasers and peppering the field with shots, taking out any Klingon that came within her line of sight.

The Klingons and the Starfleet officers were uncertain as to who to shoot first. The officers all gathered and started shooting the Klingons and Lara noticed that they couldn't quite get a shot on her or Khan. She grinned when she saw Spock and then…Kirk. How fun this was going to be.

Kirk looked up at her and Khan and she couldn't hide her pleasure at his surprise. She lowered her weapons and stepped back a few feet then ran and jumped off the higher platform she and Khan were shooting from. Lara straightened her body, flipping vertically and shooting a few Klingons down from her position in the air. She landed with one leg bent and the other straightened out, pointing to her left. She raised her guns, wild grin plastered on her face, and danced around the oncoming fire.

Jim moved away from the heat of the battle and into the narrow gaps strewn across the field. He lifted his gun when he had a clear shot of Harrison but was stopped when a lone Klingon knocked its elbow into his stomach. He yelled out and fought back, throwing punch after punch.

Lara looked around when she heard a man yell and saw it was Kirk. As more and more patrols descended, Khan quickly took them out with his large missile like gun while Lara took care of the stragglers. Again she heard Kirk yell and she rolled her eyes, turning she saw him on the ground with a Klingon looming over him.

She laughed maniacally and holstered her pistols before running over and jumping onto the Klingon's back. The alien reeled and thrashed but could not shake Lara off. She wrapped her arms around its face and whispered in its ear, "Sleep tight," then snapped its neck, dropping onto the ground when the body went limp.

Jim looked up at her, stunned, "Lara…?"

"Can't talk now, must kill." She said quickly, pulling out her pistols and resuming her fire. Jim just stared after her, unbelieving.

He felt Uhura drag him backwards towards a corner and saw Spock grab a Klingon rifle but his full attention was on the two figures before them. Lara had jumped up on top of one of the fallen structures, firing down and flipping back and forth. Her partner aimed his large weapon and took out the final patrol craft. It wavered and eventually crashed down, slamming into the ground and bursting into flames.

Neither of the attackers showed signs of weariness. And Lara seemed to be enjoying herself a bit too much. She would occasionally laugh out loud, a crazy, terrifying sound that sent chills down Kirk's spine. There was a small pause in the fire and Kirk watched the figure, John Harrison, pull down the cowl that had been concealing his face. Harrison leaped down from his high perch, shooting out two Klingons and landing just below Lara.

She had holstered her pistols again and flipped down behind him and began assisting him as they both took out the remaining Klingons quickly. Harrison knocked a Klingon in the throat and ducked when he felt Lara swing her knife into its throat.

Harrison grabbed the discarded knife and threw it into the chest of the second Klingon leaving two left. Lara ducked and kicked out the legs of the third enemy, which Harrison quickly stomped on its throat. He reached out a hand and Lara took it without question. Harrison swung her around and she wrapped her legs around the neck of the final Klingon. Twisting them quickly to the left, everyone heard a loud crunching noise as the body fell to the ground.

Lara turned on the Starfleet members and pulled out her phasers, training her guns on them. Harrison picked up a discarded rifle and did the same. Spock held up his weapon, "Stand down!"

With his rifle still focused on Kirk, Harrison ignored the Vulcan and demanded, "How many of the new torpedoes are on board the Enterprise?"

"_Stand down!"_ Spock said with more authority this time. But he felt the weapon leave his hands as Lara quickly kicked her leg up and out, knocking the weapon far from anyone's grasp. She kept her pistols trained on Spock and Uhura.

Kirk, now sufficiently stunned just stared up at the two. Harrison raised his weapon and pointed it directly at his head, "The torpedoes. The weapons you threatened me with in your message. _How many are there?_" He was forceful, severe and devoid of any indication as to why he wanted to know so badly about the torpedoes.

Uhura watched both renegades. Neither was breathing heavily or had a bead of sweat on them. That couldn't be possible…let alone the fact that Lara was _alive_. But…this wasn't Lara, at least not her friend, not the girl she had known before.

Kirk watched both Harrison and Lara and found he could not answer the question. Not from fear but because the rage that was slowly building up inside him was so intense, so…powerful that it overwhelmed everything he had been planning to say.

He stood slowly before the two and flicked his gaze to the rifle pointed at his chest. He caught Lara's crazy grin and then saw Harrison smile as well, "Careful, Captain Kirk. I assure you my feet can move faster than your hands," his glanced over at Lara, "As can hers."

"Not to mention a phaser blast," Lara said, her hands steady and eyes never leaving her targets, "Tell us Captain. How many torpedoes?"

Again Kirk just stared, unable to speak. His first officer, Spock took the chance when he recognized the possibility of the argument leading to a disaster, "Six dozen—seventy-two in all, as I recall from my encounter with the manifest."

Harrison and Lara's resolve seemed to waver for a brief second. Lara shifted her attention to her partner, unsure of what to do in the situation. Harrison looked at her and gave a small, imperceptible nod, then threw down his weapon. "We surrender."

Lara held up her pistols, muzzles facing the sky, and gently set them down near Spock's feet. She held her hands out at her sides, palms facing the officers. Harrison was in the same position. Uhura and Spock both shared a look of confusion. But Spock quickly shook his head and retrieved his weapon, handing Lara's pistols over to Uhura.

After a brief moment, Kirk slowly stood up and, glaring at the man stopped just in front of him. "On behalf of Christopher Pike, my friend, I accept your surrender." Then he swung back and punched Harrison in the face. Again and again he landed blows to the man's face, fueled by adrenaline and rage. Both Uhura and Spock tensed, preparing to stop both fugitives but neither fought back. Lara simply watched with a cold expression as her partner was hit over and over.

Harrison would stumble here and there but he showed no signs of pain, and no blood or cuts or bruises formed on his skin. "Captain!" Uhura yelled, terrified of what she was seeing in her friend.

Kirk finally stopped, his knuckles red and chest heaving. Harrison's expression, blank and cold stared at him for a moment. Harrison gave him a sort of pitying look, "Captain…" he said, his voice soft and almost…mocking.

He turned and headed in the direction of the shuttle, "Cuff em both." He left the task to his other officers. Kirk didn't trust his own actions anymore around the two. Lara watched Kirk walk away and held up her hands to her mouth, covering up a crazy smile and holding back a giggle that would sure make him even angrier. She had enjoyed watching Khan mock Kirk, and enjoyed how her former crew member's faces twisted with confusion. She loved keeping people guessing.

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	7. Chapter 7

_**Hello! Welcome to the next chapter yay! Ok so if you haven't noticed I moved stuff around and re-edited a lot of the chapters. There is a brand new section at the end of chapter 3 that i might have accidentally cut out earlier (my bad) and there are a few new lines in chapter 5. Also this chapter is taking some of the first "preview" I ever wrote for this story and hopefully it all fits well. Welp that's it for now, hope you all enjoy the read! Oh! and in my last chapter before i did the edit I gave a big thank you to Rainbow Magic Girl for pointing out that there is a novelized version of the movie. You are a life saver! **_

_**Ok, that's it for now. Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**_

* * *

Lara walked in front of Khan as they were led through the Enterprise. Lara counted ten separate security officers surrounding the two. They were led through the halls and towards the cell room. Lara was put in her own cell and Khan in the cell across from her. Luckily the room was fairly small. It seemed Starfleet didn't count on taking too many prisoners when their people went on missions. Lara could easily speak to Khan and hear him perfectly. They were stripped of their jackets and gloves, leaving both renegades in their long sleeved shirts. Lara felt a moment of sadness, she really like that jacket.

* * *

Jim watched the security team lead the Harrisons away and couldn't help but watch how Khan watched Lara. Like he was constantly checking if she was alright…maybe he really did care about her…

He shook the thought out of his head and turned to his Lieutenant, "Uhura. Contact Starfleet and let them know we have the Harrisons in custody."

She replied with a curt, "Yes sir." Jim walked off to his cabin to change out of his civilian clothes…he needed to look the part when questioning these two, and he was not looking forward to that conversation.

* * *

Jim met up with Spock and Bones and all three made their way to the cell room. "You look fine Jim," his chief medical officer commented, "Why do you need me anyways?"

"I want you to run a full physio panel on our prisoners." Jim said leading them down a narrow corridor.

Bones' voice took on its usual hot-tempered tone, "Why? Are they sick?"

"I don't know what they are Bones, but I do know that I just watched them take out an entire Klingon security team single-handedly. I mean…Lara snapped the neck of one like it was made out of tissue paper. Neither was winded at all by the end. I want to know how. There's something else going on here that's more than passing strange. I need you to help me substitute 'fact' for 'strange'."

The doctor seemed to consider the captain's words, "Sounds like we got us a pair of supers on board."

"Yeah you tell me." All three rounded the corner into the cell block. Lara was standing as close to the glass of her cell as possible, face mere centimeters from touching it. She was watching her partner intently, like they were communicating by just using body language. Harrison was standing in the corner of his cell, observing everything around the room.

Both prisoners stood out from the bright white walls and floors of the room. Even Lara's own white shirt seemed to glow against everything. Jim wasn't sure who to start with so he went with what he thought would be the easiest to talk to, Lara…he soon found out it was a huge mistake on his part.

Bones stared at her and felt himself feel…fear when he saw her eyes watch them. She looked like a wild animal, ready to pounce any second should she get the chance. The doctor pulled out a hand-held device and did a quick scan of her vitals, "Perfect posture, fully developed muscular structure…similar to a classically trained…ballerina?"

They heard Lara snicker, "Isn't fighting just another form of dancing gentlemen?"

Again Bones felt that sense of fear creep up his spine but he ignored it and continued, "Uh…nothing out of the ordinary so far." He stepped closer to the glass and pulled over a circular device which created a small opening, "Put your arm through the hole. I'm just going to take a blood sample."

Lara twitched her eyes to Harrison then back to the doctor and complied. Pulling up the bottom of her sleeve she stuck her hand through and the doctor took his sample quickly; surprised at how warm her skin felt when she acted so…cold.

Jim had to face away from her, he cast his eyes down at his shoes as Spock led the doctor to the other side and Bones repeated the process with Harrison. "Jim?"

He looked up when he heard her voice, not this girl's voice but _his girl's_ voice. Lara watched him with wide, doe eyes and pressed her hands against the glass, "Jim what are you doing to us?"

"What?"

"I…I…" Lara's composure broke and she held her stomach while she laughed at him. That same crazy sound he heard earlier. "Forgive me Captain. But I needed to test you…you passed, congratulations."

Jim watched her speak. She had dark make up. Thick lines and dark shadows surrounded her eyes; pale lips…even her skin looked paler. Everything about her was different from the girl he had grown up with, everything was wrong. She was so much thinner as well and Bones was right…she did look like a skinny ballerina. He remembered how she had moved across the battlefield, so graceful and so dangerous all at the same time.

"Who…are you?" Jim finally managed to ask.

Lara tilted her head to the side, "Lara Harrison. Terrorist, weapon…lover. I'm everything Lara Sheppard never was, and that makes me the best-well besides…" she trailed off and let her eyes travel to her partner who was watching the exchange with a curious gaze.

Jim watched Lara for a moment longer then walked over to his doctor hoping to question him on John Harrison but he was interrupted when the man in question spoke, his deep baritone voice vibrating against the walls,

"Why aren't we at moving, Captain?" Kirk chose to not reply and when he didn't even acknowledge the question, Harrison continued, "Allow me to guess. An unexpected malfunction? Perhaps something to do with your warp core, conveniently stranding your ship on the edge of Klingon space?"

Bones shot his head up from his devices, "How the hell do you know that?"

Kirk cut him off, "Bones." The doctor completed his work and nodded to the prisoner, the opening he had put his arm through sealing automatically along with Lara's. Both prisoners replaced their sleeves and watched the captain eagerly. Again the captain ignored his prisoners and turned to his doctor, "We good?"

"I think you'd find his insights valuable, Captain. Don't you want to hear what he has to say?" Lara spoke up, watching the exchange between the officers.

Bones didn't reply to her and instead replied to Jim, "Assuming there's anything out of the ordinary to be got." The doctor moved out of the room quickly, escaping the tension and bad memories as fast as he could.

Jim looked over and nodded at Spock, both moving to return to the bridge but they were stopped by Harrison's commanding voice reverberating against the walls, "Ignore me and you will get _everyone_ in this ship killed."

Kirk stopped and tried to slow down his breathing. He was getting to the end of his rope with both of his prisoners. "Give me a minute Spock."

His first officer began to protest, "Captain, I would not recommend engaging the prisoners further in…"

"_Give us a minute."_ Jim's voice took on a more demanding vibrato. Spock hesitated but eventually left without another word.

Jim took a deep calming breath and walked over to stand in front of Lara's cell. He watched her, watched her face and her movements. Tried to see what exactly was wrong with her…and he knew it must be everything, because this girl…this girl was not _his_ Lara.

"How could you?" he finally asked her, somehow keeping his voice steady even though his heart was racing.

Lara raised a neatly plucked black eyebrow at him and almost smirked, "I'm just carrying out the wishes of myself and my companion captain. We want justice."

"Justice? How can you call the murder of innocent people justice?" Kirk nearly shouted, gesturing to some place with his arm.

"I would not expect you to understand, at least not yet," she paused and looked past his shoulder across the room to John then back to Kirk, "He would like to speak with you Captain. We both wish to know what your purposes are with us, seeing as you did not kill us when you probably should have and were probably ordered to as well. Do you know why he did that?" she pointed to question over his shoulder to Harrison.

"Oh I have a few ideas that come to mind. Do not worry yourself darling, he will reveal his intentions soon I believe. After all, the man loves to hear himself talk." Kirk clenched his jaw and watched Lara's face as Harrison talked. As he watched her stare at Harrison, Jim saw something in her eyes that he thought he would only ever see aimed at him. Love. He saw pure, unconditional love in those eyes as she gazed over at the terrorist. He even saw her tiny grin when he had called her "darling".

Jim felt his hands clench into fists, finger nails digging into the skin. _She isn't the same, that's not my Lara._ He repeated this mantra over and over as he made the short distance to the other side of the cell room to Harrison. He let his anger pour out in his words, hoping the man would understand how badly Jim had _wanted_ to kill him before. "Let me explain something to you. You are a criminal," he growled out at him,

"I watched you both murder innocent men and women. I was authorized to _end_ you. And the _only _reason why you are_ still _alive," he made sure to look between both criminals while saying this, "Is because I am allowing it. So shut-your-mouth." He said this and pointed at Lara right at the end. She simply stared back at him with a blank expression as if she knew it was not her turn to speak. Instead she rested her eyes on Harrison again and watched him in anticipation. Like she couldn't wait to hear what he would say next.

Harrison kept his eyes down, "Oh Captain are you going to punch me again over and over until your arm weakens," he slowly looked up and met Kirk's stare, "Clearly you want to so tell me, why did you allow us to live?"

Jim felt a wash of shame come over him, "We all make mistakes."

Harrison shook his head, "No, I had us surrender to you because despite your attempt to convince myself and Lara otherwise you seem to have a conscience Mr. Kirk. If you did not then it would be impossible for either of us to convince you of the truth." He paused and looked across to Lara as if giving her permission to speak.

"Two-three-one-seven, four-six-one-one." She said the words while staring at Harrison, voice carrying across the small space and echoing against the walls.

Harrison returned his gaze to Jim and continued, "Coordinates not far from Earth. If you want to know why either of us did what we did, go and take a look."

Jim narrowed his eyes, "Give me one reason why I should listen to either of you."

"I can give you seventy-two, and they're on board your ship Captain. They have been all along. I suggest you open one up-and take a look." Harrison concluded. Jim went to say something but heard Lara's voice,

"Open up your surprise…take a peek before daddy comes home." She watched him with wide eyes, hands pressed against the glass. Jim couldn't find the words so he left, escaping her presence as quickly as he could.

"Will he go?" Lara asked when the captain had left.

"If not him, then he must send somebody. The seed has been planted darling, now we wait." Khan said across to her, taking a seat on one of the benches.

Lara sighed and sat down on the floor, crossed her legs and straightened out her back. "How long will it take?"

"Not too long," Khan watched her and noticed her twitching fingers and hurried breathing, "Lara, remember the meditation technique I taught you?"

She nodded, "You think it will help calm me down?" he simply nodded in reply and she began to slow her breathing. Khan was right; she needed to keep calm for the oncoming fight with Marcus. She was just so anxious to get to the bastard…but she needed to prepare her mind. Prepare for the final push, the final step to getting her revenge.

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	8. Chapter 8

_**Oh my goodness! This chapter is probably the most difficult to write so far...looong speech right at the end given wonderfully by the extremely talented Benedict Cumberbatch in the movie...which i need to see again actually-need to get on that.**_

_**Bah! Ok I'll stop talking now. Hope you like the chapter! Thank you soooooo much for reading!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**_

* * *

"Are you out of your corn-fed mind?" Bones had to control himself while on the bridge. He spoke to his captain and the ships first officer in a hushed, harsh tone.

Normally rank would have called for Commander Spock to intervene and correct the medical officer but as of right now, Spock decided to let the doctor speak and viewed his opinion with an open mind.

"You aren't going to actually listen to these two right? Harrison killed Pike and Lara killed a whole squad of security officers, they're murderers…among other things," Bones continued his small rant, "I mean they almost killed _you_. And now you're thinking it might be a good idea to pop open a torpedo just because they essentially _dared_ you?"

Kirk watched his friend as they stood in front and away from the bulk of the crew on the bridge. He crossed his arms, "Yeah but they also saved our lives. Mine, Spock's, Uhura's. You can't throw that under the bus Bones. They could have killed me, each on separate occasions. Hell they could have taken all three of us out-easily-but they didn't, they _surrendered_. I want to know why."

Bones would not hear it, "Jim that's just what they want you to think. These two don't just have a sudden change of heart. There is a reason behind everything and it has nothing to do with a sudden burst of empathy. If they saved your lives, it was because they saw something in it. Something that could help advance _their own_ agenda…whatever that might be."

Spock added in his own hushed tone, "The doctor does have a point, Captain."

Bones walked around behind the Vulcan and wrinkled his nose, "Don't agree with me Spock. It makes me very uncomfortable."

Jim shook his head, ignoring the doctor's comment, "Scotty quit because of those torpedoes. He refused to stay on board without knowing what was inside them. I've decided that he was right, and not just because of what those two crazies suggested. We need to know."

The doctor looked at his captain and gestured in the general direction of the brig, "Jim, that man is a homicidal maniac and I'm pretty sure Lara has taken the turn into crazy town. All they want is for us to blow up everyone on this ship. They've got you hooked by challenging you to some…ridiculous contest, can't you see that?"

Again Jim moved his head back and forth and kept his eyes down in thought, "No, that's not it. They aren't that obvious. There is another reason why they wanted to get on board…" he trailed off as his mind began to race through all the possibilities.

Bones rolled his eyes, "Yeah maybe they want to say that all is forgiven so they can enlist. Jim, he's gotten under your skin and…so has she. Maybe they're stalling. That would explain this whole challenge thing to go to these secret coordinates. They could be working for the damn Klingons for all we know!"

Spock attempted to calm down the doctor, "Perhaps you too should learn to govern your emotions a little Doctor. In this situation logic dictates that—"

"Logic?" Bones spluttered, "My God man, there's a pair of lunatics on board trying to make us blow up our own ship and you're—"

"Bones," Jim said stopping his friend from going down a very dangerous road, "I don't know why they surrendered but that is not it. We're opening one of those torpedoes but the question is how."

The doctor seemed to weigh the options, "Well without Scotty aboard and our former weapons specialist having now gone off the deep end," he said gesturing in the general direction of the brig, "Who the hell do we have that is capable of handling that kind of weaponry."

"If I may offer a thought, Captain?" Spock asked and continued when Jim gave him a welcoming nod, "It has come to my attention that the admiral's daughter also has an interest in the new torpedoes, and she is a weapons specialist. Perhaps she could be of some use."

"What _admiral's_ daughter?" Kirk exclaimed, arms crossed as he scrunched up his face in confusion.

"Carol Marcus," Spock explained with his hands behind his back, "Your new science officer concealed her true identity in order to be assigned to the Enterprise."

"Well…when were you going to tell me that?" the captain asked, using no attempt to hide his surprise at the new information.

"When it became relevant. As it just did."

* * *

"What have you got?" Kirk asked his ground team. Bones sat on a table and let one of his nurses attend to his now injured arm while Carol Marcus poked at their newest salvage. Jim had decided to send down their new weapons specialist, Carol Marcus, also the admiral's daughter with Bones-who had the steadiest hands on the ship. They landed on a small planetoid, intending on opening up the weapon to try and understand exactly what it was made out of and why.

However they had run into a tiny snag when Bones who with his steady hands had been attempting to cut a certain number of a wire as instructed by Doctor Marcus. The compartment were Bones had his arm in, halfway past his elbow, had shut on his arm, cutting off circulation and their chances of disarming the bomb. Panic had ensued on the bridge but, thankfully, Carol had been able to shut down the countdown sequence before it hit zero. When she did-after ripping out a large number of wires-both her and McCoy saw something they were not expecting.

And, looking down at the frozen man now…Jim realized why they had been stunned to silence on the small planetoid. The man in the cryotube was pale and looked like he wasn't even breathing. His age unknown, at least his _physical_ age, the captain had to keep reminding himself of that particular fact. There was no sure way of knowing exactly how long this man had been lying in his current state.

Marcus looked up from her fiddling, "A little, not nearly enough though," she gestured toward the torpedo, "It's brilliant actually. Someone managed to retrofit the torpedo to conceal the cryogenic capsule. A small portion of the onboard stored energy meant to maintain the weapon's electronics and related systems was redirected to sustain the capsule's functionality. A capsule of this design only requires a minimal amount of power to sustain the stasis for a considerable amount of time."

Jim watched the man in the tube again. He looked well…dead. His nostrils weren't moving, chest was perfectly still… "Is he alive?" the captain finally asked.

Bones pulled down his sleeve and stood on the opposite side of the torpedo, "Yeah, his vitals are minimal, barely detectable, but they're there. Slowed way down. I mean they are at levels you'd want if you choose to, I don't know, take a nap on the floor of the Antarctic Ocean."

"Can he be revived?" Spock asked from behind Jim.

The doctor shook his head, "Not without the proper equipment and sequencing. If we try to bring him back without knowing the science behind putting him in, the attempt could kill him as soon as we revive him," he huffed out of his nose, "This technology is beyond me."

"How advanced Doctor?" Spock asked again.

"It's not advanced," Carol explained with a slight shake of her head, "That cryotube is ancient."

McCoy nodded, "She's right. We haven't had to freeze anyone since the earliest days of deep space exploration. The development of warp technology made this particular branch of biotech obsolete…instantly. And speaking of ancient, that is the most interesting part about our friend here. He's three hundred years old."

Jim felt his breath hitch and he glanced at Spock, both thinking the same thing.

* * *

Lara had calmed down her mind. She got a bit excited after the fight…it had been awhile since she had dealt with that much adrenaline. Reaching her arms up above her head, she stretched out her back and felt it pop in several places. She leaned against the wall while she rested on the one small bench in her cell. Her long legs were stretched out in front of her and she began to twist her ankles round and round, feeling the bones creak and pop as well.

She looked across to Khan; he too was sitting on his bench but more like he was waiting instead of relaxing. Lara wished she could be there next to him, if anything for pure comfort. She just hated to be separated from him for so long.

That's when she heard the stomping of several pairs of boots coming down the hall to the brig. She kept herself calm, tightened her pony tail and placed her hands in her lap. Jim was the first to come around, followed by Spock and the ten security officers from before. The captain all but ignored her and went to stand in front of Khan's cell. His chest heaved, and he looked like he was holding back every ounce of his fury.

"Why is there a man in that torpedo?"

Khan slowly raised his eyes to meet Kirk's, "There are men and women in all the torpedoes, Captain. I put them there."

Lara stood up quietly and tried to not draw the attention away from Khan. However, she did keep her eyes on him though. She knew this subject was a bit…sore for Khan to discuss.

"Who the _hell_ are you?" Kirk's voice was filled with intensity.

Khan rose from his seat as well and flashed his eyes over at Lara before explaining himself to the captain, "A remnant of a time long past. Genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others to peace in a world at war. But myself and my crew were condemned as criminals. Forced into exile. For centuries we slept, hoping that when we woke, things would be…different. Of course these hopes were in vain."

Spock felt his eyebrows scrunch together in a brief moment of confusion, "You are implying that you too were in cryostasis?"

All three heard Lara snigger, "Told you he was smart."

Khan spared her a brief, half smile then answered the Vulcan science officer, "If your planet hadn't been annihilated, I would still be asleep…and Lara would probably have never died. But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, your Starfleet began to search distant quadrants of space more aggressively than before. They found my ship adrift, I alone was revived. I then learned of the destruction of Vulcan and…many other things.

After they woke me up it wasn't nearly enough. Starfleet began to dig into its past. They learned of the program that made me and tried to recreate that. Obviously they failed, and Lara died protecting you…Kirk."

Lara watched the captain's jaw clench and his fists tighten. She chose this moment to speak, her voice cold and calm. "Don't feel so bad about that captain. A lot of good came out of my death."

Choosing to ignore the comment Jim returned his attention to the man standing behind the glass, "I looked up John Harrison. Up until a year ago, he didn't exist."

" 'John Harrison' was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause," he locked eyes with the captain, "My name is…Khan."

Lara felt an involuntary shutter roll up her spine as Khan growled out his name. Kirk watched his prisoner and said, "Why would a Starfleet admiral need help from a three-hundred-year-old frozen man?"

"Because I am…better."

"At what?"

"_Everything_," Khan spoke the word as a fact. And it was. "Alexander Marcus believed he needed to respond to an uncivilized threat in a civilized time, and for that he needed a warriors mind-_my_ mind."

Spock was not convinced, "You are suggesting that the admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect?"

"No he wanted to exploit my savagery. Intellect alone is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock you-you should know that. You can't even break a rule, how can you be expected to break bone?" Lara could tell Khan was enjoying mocking the Vulcan…and she had to admit it she definitely enjoyed it as well.

Spock didn't answer but both Lara and Khan could see the slight tightening of his hands. Tiring of his taunts where only one other person seemed to know the rules of the little game, Khan decided to spew out every detail so as to further avoid questions.

"Your admiral used me to help design new weapons. To realize a vision of a heavily militarized Starfleet. That was the purpose of his precious, private Section 31. Starfleet was content to let him supervise one small, unimportant research project: After all, was he not an admiral of the fleet? Some minor improvements, some small advances, he allowed to be passed up along the research chain to show that his project was making progress and that it was deserving of continued funding. Other advances, particularly those in whose development I personally participated, he continued to shroud in 'necessary' secrecy until they were sufficiently 'perfected' for them to be revealed to Starfleet at large.

"And then? He sent you to use those weapons. To fire my torpedoes at an unsuspecting world. He purposefully saw to it that your ship would become crippled in enemy space, leading to one inevitable outcome."

Lara grinned and watched as Khan now had the full, undivided attention of captain and first officer. It was all just too easy for them.

"The Klingons would come searching for whoever was responsible for the intrusion and assault of their home world, and you would have no chance of escape. You would have no choice but to fight back. The Klingon Empire, quite reasonably, would be outraged. Marcus would finally have the war he talked about—the war he always said he wanted—all because of a renegade captain engaged in an unsanctioned mission of personal vengeance. Think now a moment, captain: Where did your orders come from to sally forth to kill me? Directly from Marcus. Did you ever receive any complementary orders from anywhere else or anyone else in Starfleet? No. it was all Marcus, it was just Marcus, it was only Marcus. You were, you _are_, not engaged in a mission on behalf of Starfleet. You are engaged in a mission on behalf of Admiral Alexander Marcus."

Khan paused to let all of the information sink in. "You are a _pawn_, Kirk. Advanced across the board to be sacrificed for the aims of your king."

Jim watched his prisoner and did not show signs of wavering. "Even if that is true none of that changes the fact that you and," he pointed behind himself to Lara but never took his eyes off Khan, "her both opened fire on a room full of unarmed Starfleet officers and personnel. You killed every single one of them in cold blood."

"Marcus _used_ me," Khan growled out at the captain, "He took my crew…my friends and used them to control me. While I alone was revived, they were kept in frozen stasis. My pleas to bring them back as well fell on deaf ears. Ears that were numb to my need, to my pain. Help us design weapons, I was told, and eventually you crew will be restored. 'Eventually' came and went, with no indication that even one of my crew would be revived. No matter how much I pleaded, no matter that I went down on my knees and begged…'eventually' always kept receding into the future. It was plain that in the mind of Alexander Marcus, eventually actually meant never."

Lara felt her heart go out to Khan as she pressed her hands against the glass and tried to tell him without any words, that she was there for him. She wished she could just make all of the pain go away, and she felt so useless watching Khan sift through all his emotions.

"You," Kirk said harshly, breathing sharply through his nose, "Are a _murderer_!"

Khan, for the first time since the captain had been interrogating him, showed genuine emotion. He clenched his fists and turned his back to them. "Marcus used my own friend to control me. Realizing that he meant to keep me his vassal until I died, I tried to smuggle out my crew to safety by concealing them in the very weapons that I designed. But I was discovered. At that point, I knew Marcus would no longer risk my being alive, lest others in Starfleet discover what he had done. In attempting to save my crew, I had made myself more of a threat than a help. For my friends, as well as myself, I had no choice but to escape-alone.

"Once that action had been forced upon me, I had every reason to believe Marcus would kill every single one of the people I hold most dear…well," he said eyes red-rimmed from holding back tears as he turned and looked past both Starfleet members to his partner, "That was until I found Lara."

She smiled across at him and added in her part of the story, "Khan told me everything when I came back. I learned all the secrets, all the truths. Marcus killed my parents, Captain. They learned his secret agenda and he had them silenced before they could tell anyone," Jim watched her with wide eyes and she finished, "Now you know why I'm doing this."

Khan continued his story after he let Lara speak her piece, "I made arrangements to have my crew moved before Marcus could begin to carry out his program of execution. As a privileged supervisor of Section 31, I had access to resources of my own, you see. The work was done quietly, without Marcus being aware of the move. But he found out…and had them transferred to your ship. To carry them to Kronos so you could fire them at me and Lara and Marcus would be rid of us both in one quick attack."

He learned forward, "Why do you think I had us surrender to you Kirk? Once I had learned that the 'special' torpedoes were on the Enterprise, my intent all along was to be reunited with my crew and to bring in Lara to join us. I would never have let you fire those weapons at Kronos,"

Stepping back he continued, "To me, murder premeditated, Captain, is murder committed. We did what we did at Starfleet headquarters because we were responding in kind only to what we had perceived to be Marcus's intentions," he glanced at Spock then to Lara for a moment and returned his gaze to the captain, "Perhaps our actions in attacking your colleagues was not entirely logical, but it arose out of emotion and conviction neither of us could repress. My crew is my _family_, Kirk."

Another set of tears rolled down his cheeks and Khan locked eyes with Lara, "Is there anything you would not do for your family?"

Lara felt her own eyes burn with tears. With her hands still pressed against the glass she gave Khan her most sympathetic and loving look.

Jim waited and before he could manage an adequate response, Sulu's voice echoed over the brig speaker.

"_Proximity alert, sir. There's a ship at warp heading right for us. It will intersect our coordinates in…I-I don't have a specific time frame sir. Soon. A matter of minutes."_

"Klingons?" The captain asked anxiously.

"At warp?" Khan responded to the captain's question first, "No Kirk, we both know who it is."

"_I don't think it's Klingons sir. It's not coming at us from Kronos or Praxis or any of the known outlying monitoring stations."_

Kirk felt his heart drop. That sealed the deal for him. He turned and had Spock follow him out as they began to jog back to the bridge. "Lieutenant, move Khan and Lara to sickbay. Post ten security officers on both. Full time, full rotation, full arms."

"Yes Captain."

Lara followed Jim and Spock with her eyes as they quickly left. Looking back across the room to Khan she found him watching her. They both stared the other down, each knowing what might come and…what they might have to do.

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_Review, fav and follow! Lots of love!_


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello there :D Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Sorry I haven't updated in the past few days but I needed a break you know? Annnd I got to see Into Darkness...again. That makes 5 times for me, and I'm planning on seeing it again soon ha! Ok enough with the talking I'll let you get on to the chapter. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**

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"Sulu, ETA on the approaching ship." Kirk ordered as he and Spock rushed onto the bridge.

"Three seconds sir."

Jim calmed his racing heart as he took the chair, "Shields."

The pilot did as he was ordered and raised all the shields to full power. The captain watched anxiously through the view screen, waiting on the appearance of the admiral. The vessel slammed out of warp, Jim could have sworn he felt the air shift with its arrival. It literally _dwarfed_ the Enterprise. The metal of the new ship was ebony black, built along the general design of a typical Federation ship. But Jim could see that everything about this ship was different. It looked hundreds of times heavier, the entire feeling that came from the ship was massive, weighted and all together threatening.

The ship was made for battle. Two gigantic weapons hung down from the bottom, beefing up the exterior of the ship even more than it was. It blocked the entire view of the nebula the Enterprise was parked in front of…the whole thing was just…_big_.

"Captain," Uhura's voice came from behind him, "They're hailing us."

"On screen. Broadcast shipwide for the record."

The view screen blurred for a second and then showed a face. That face, confirmed everything Khan and Lara had been saying. _Well…dammit…_Kirk thought as the admiral greeted him.

"Captain Kirk," Admiral Alexander Marcus was professional, cold…all business.

Jim nodded at him-or to himself he wasn't quite sure-and said, "Admiral Marcus. I wasn't expecting you. That's some ship."

"And I wasn't expecting to get word that you'd taken the Harrisons into custody in violation of your orders. Or did you forget that you were directed to find them and take them out?" Marcus shook his head slowly like he was disappointed.

"Well we had to improvise when our warp core suddenly malfunctioned," Jim replied, calling on his old bluffing talents he had used far too many times while at the academy. He continued with as much innocence as he could muster, "But you already knew that, didn't you sir."

Marcus began to sound like he was growing impatient, "I don't take your meaning."

"Well that's why you're here isn't it? To assist with repairs? I mean, why else would the head of Starfleet personally bring his ship to the edge of Klingon space?"

From his seat at the helm, Sulu quietly said to Kirk, "Captain, they're scanning our ship."

Kirk felt his smile tighten, "Something I can help you find sir?"

"Where are your prisoners Kirk?" Marcus asked, tiring of the game he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"As per Starfleet regulations I'm preparing to return Lara and…Khan to Earth, where they will both stand trial."

Marcus sat back up, "Well…shit," he rubbed his forehead, "You talked to him. This is exactly what I was hoping to spare you from."

" 'Spare' me, sir?" Kirk asked bemused.

"Listen to me son," the admiral took on a gentle tone, "I made a mistake. I'm not afraid to admit it. There'd be no point in not admitting it. Not when your prisoner has gone out of his way to provide ample proof of my error. I took a tactical risk waking that bastard up, thinking his superior brain could help us protect ourselves from whatever came at us next.

"He brought back that girl and I could have let that one slide until he started to use her to his advantage. Khan turned her into the weapon she is today. She is just as dangerous as he is, they are both dangerous. The blood of everyone they killed is on my hands. That is something I will have to deal with on my own. I don't blame you or your crew for anything that happened during this little episode, Kirk. I know what they are both capable of. They fooled me, and they fooled you. There will be no reprisals against you or your crew. I'll see to that personally. And if I can manage, the entire incident will be expunged from the official records. Now I'm asking you: Give them to me so I can end what I started.

Kirk almost bought it. The admirals story made sense, all of it did. And Kirk would be guaranteed amnesty, for himself and his crew. He did believe what Khan and Lara had told him. And…he believed that Khan truly cared for Lara. The way Khan had watched her when he talked about his family…that was love. The softening of the Khan's eyes as he gazed across the brig at her had only shown that the cold exterior was protecting the man underneath. And it seemed that Lara was able to find her way to that man.

But, Kirk could just forget it. They were murderers. Khan killed Pike; Lara had killed innocent Starfleet personnel without a second thought. The captain would be rid of the two terrorists, he could go back to exploring…except for one detail. Something Marcus had failed to mention.

"And what would you have me do with the rest of Khan's crew?" Jim asked straightening in his seat, "Fire them at the Klingons? Just…end seventy-two lives, start a war in the process?"

The admiral's brow furrowed, "War? Is that what he told you? Consider this for a moment son. He put those people in those torpedoes. He made your girl the way she is. They were able to survive on Kronos by themselves. Can you imagine what would happen if we woke up the rest of his crew? What else did he tell you? That he's a 'peacekeeper'? He's playing you son, don't you see that?"

Kirk tried to defend his prisoner, "He and his crew were misused, forced into cryosleep—"

But Marcus cut him off, "Khan and his people were war criminals. They were condemned to death before they managed to get away. And now he's turned your former crewmember into one of _his_! She is _just like him_! I'm simply trying to do what is right here and carry out the sentence that was passed on the prisoner and his cohorts before anyone else dies because of them. So I'm asking you again. One last time, son. Lower your shields, tell me where they are."

Jim paused and weighed his options. He was always a gambler at heart, loved playing outside of the rules. But he knew he was outranked, outgunned and outmatched. He couldn't challenge the admiral and his massive ship outright on the Enterprises sensors. He took a deep breath,

"They are in Engineering, sir. But I'll have them moved to the transporter room right away."

Marcus' shoulders slumped as he sighed, the admiral was relieved. "Thank you, son. I'll take it from here."

The image of the admiral vanished, replaced by the image of his massive warship. The instant his face was gone, Kirk stood from his chair and pointed at his pilot, "Mr. Sulu do not drop those shields."

"Yes sir." The pilot nodded at him as Kirk stepped down from the chair. He was stopped by that familiar voice,

"Captain," Spock said to him, "Bearing in mind that the reality is that Khan and Lara are in sickbay and not in Engineering leads me to believe that you are contriving a plan that conflicts with what you have just told the admiral."

Kirk looked back at him, "I told Marcus we were bringing the fugitives back to Earth to stand trial and that's exactly what we're going to do," he activated the comm system, "Mr. Chekov, can we warp?"

"_Sir, we're working on it as hard as we can. There is some functionality, but if we engage it now, we risk further damaging the core."_

"Well can we do it or not?" Kirk snapped at the Russian whiz-kid.

"_Techinically…yes. But I would not adwise it Keptin."_

"Noted," Jim nodded then turned back to his helmsman, "Mr. Sulu, set course for Earth."

"Yes, sir." The ensign entered the coordinates in record time, "Course laid in."

"Punch it," Kirk ordered, as he calmed his racing heart and returned to his seat.

* * *

Lara closed her eyes when she felt the small jump to warp. She opened them to find Khan staring right back at her. They had been moved to the sickbay, metal cuffs around their hands. Both sat on opposite beds across from each other with five guards for each of them. They were so close now, Lara only had to extend her leg and her toe would touch Khan's knee.

But she couldn't of course. One wrong move and the security officers would be all over her…and that would just be annoying. Thinking back she realized that pretty much the whole 'shipwide broadcast' had been annoying. Hearing the admiral's slimy voice made her want to break something. Of course that was only an internal feeling. She and Khan had been stoic the entire time, simply watching one another as Marcus spewed out his little story of mistakes and redemption.

Carol Marcus had been assisting Doctor McCoy in analyzing the prisoners. She was currently working on scanning Lara with a tricorder. Lara ignored the blonde and kept her eyes focused on Khan's.

"Well at least we're moving again," McCoy stated in a conversational tone. He moved a tricorder over Khan's face and hoped his manner would ease the tension in the room.

For the first time since taking his seat on the table, Khan moved his eyes to the Doctor's, "If you think we're safe at warp…you're wrong."

Lara couldn't help but smile up at Carol. "Daddy's coming sweetheart." The young doctor's eyes grew wide as she realized what both prisoners were talking about. Before a curious McCoy could think of a question, Carol had thrown down her equipment and bolted out of the room.

* * *

"Lieutenant Uhura, contact Starfleet," Kirk said from his chair, "Identify us and tell them we were pursued into the Neutral Zone by an unmarked Federation ship."

She shook her head as her fingers flew across the many screens and buttons in front of her, "Can't do any of that, sir. Comms are down. All ship auxiliary power's being diverted to warp."

Kirk felt his temper flare for just a moment but it quickly dissipated when he saw Doctor Marcus sprinting out of the lift. "Permission to come on the bridge!" she called even though she was halfway through the command center.

"Dr. Marcus? What's going on?"

"He's going to catch up with us, and when he does, the only thing that's going to stop him destroying this ship is me, so you have to let me talk to him."

Jim tried to calm her down, "Carol, we're at warp. He can't catch up with us."

She pressed on, "Yes he can. He's been developing a ship that has advanced warp capabilities and—"

The ships proximity alarm blared and interrupted Carol's hurried explanations. "Mr. Sulu what's going on?" Kirk asked his helmsman.

Sulu hardly looked away from his screen, "Captain, I'm getting a reading I don't understand. There's a…distortion—a very _big_ distortion," he watched the readout closer, "There seems to be something in the warp tunnel with us."

This time the admiral skipped the professional courtesies and went right for the aggressive negotiations. The Enterprise was rocked from side to side as she was hit numerous times with the admirals advanced weaponry. Kirk barely managed to stand on shaking legs as every alarm in the ship was going off.

"Sulu damage report!" he called out, "Where are we?"

"Shields dropping, all weapons systems offline!" Sulu reported from his seat, also quite shaken, "We're twenty thousand kilometers from Luna!"

Kirk whipped around and checked on his bridge crew. Everyone was in a slight state of panic, nothing too extreme though. "Captain!" an ensign reported to him, "Major hull damage, we've been knocked out of the warp tunnel."

"Captain," Spock announced from his seat, "Marcus's ship clearly has advanced warp and weapons capabilities proportionate to her size."

Another group of blasts rocked the Enterprise and Kirk felt the artificial gravity give way for a moment. They couldn't lose that, if they lost that, they were done for. "Evasive maneuvers! Get us to Earth now! Full impulse! Sulu—"

"Captain stop!" Carol said recovering from being thrown over. She grabbed his shoulder and gave him a slight shake. "Please, we are _all_ going to _die_ if you don't let me speak to him!"

Kirk paused and realized he truly had no other option. "Lieutenant Uhura, hail them."

Carol turned around to face the screen, "Sir, it's me-it's Carol. I'm here."

The viewscreen flickered and showed Marcus, leaning toward the screen, a look of pure horror on his face. _"What are you doing on that ship?"_

"I heard what you said," the young doctor spoke to her father with a shaking voice, trying to hold back her anxiety as the tears slowly welled up in her eyes, "That you made a mistake and now you're doing everything you can to fix it. But Dad…I don't believe that the man who raised me is capable of destroying a ship full of innocent people. And if I'm wrong about that…then I guess you'll have to do it with me on board."

There was a solid pause as Admiral Marcus seemed to weigh what his daughter had just said. He leaned back in his seat, "Actually Carol I won't."

The girl's eyes widened as she saw the familiar lights of a transport begin to swarm around her body. She turned around and called out helplessly to Kirk, "Captain?"

"Can we interrupt their transport signal?" he called out.

"No, sir!" a private quickly responded to him. Carol ran for the lift, trying to interrupt the signal as much as she could. But she was gone as quickly as she had been there.

Jim watched her disappear and felt a chill run down his spine. The admiral's cold, unwavering voice sounded behind him, "Captain James T. Kirk: Without authorization and in league with the fugitives known as John and Lara Harrison you and your crew went rogue in enemy territory, leaving me no choice but to hunt you down and destroy you," he looked to his right, "Lock phasers."

"Wait sir!" Kirk raised a hand and ran to stand in front of the view screen, "Wait, wait, _wait_!" the admiral paused and Jim knew what he had to do, "Admiral, I take full responsibility for my actions. But they were my actions, and mine alone," he was pleading now. Pleading for the lives of his crew.

"My crew was only following my orders. They acted only as instructed. Following a captain's orders should be reason for commendation, not termination. If I transmit Khan and Lara's location to you now, all that I ask is that you spare them," he stepped even closer to the screen, "Please sir. I'll do anything you want, just let them live."

The admiral let him finish and spoke in a sympathetic tone, "Well, Captain, I have to say that's a hell of an apology. But if it's any consolation," he leaned back in his chair, "I was never going to spare your crew…_fire_."

There was a dead silence that followed as the view screen cut out. Jim looked back at his bridge crew; saw Spock and Uhura standing by each other, hands entwined. He watched all their faces, knew that there was nothing more he could do. He had done everything he could.

"I'm sorry."

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_Review, fav and follow! Lots of love!_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Do you all hate me for that last cliffhanger...? Yea? Well...sorry but it was necessary. OH! Annnnnd a biiiiiiig thank you to all of you! Goodness this story has more followers than I ever thought it would ever have a chance of getting! You are all beautiful people, I love every single one of you :D Okie dokie then on with the chapter! Enjoy it!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**_

* * *

Coming out of the back of the large warship, two photon torpedoes, both twice the size of the Enterprise, unfolded like the hands of the devil himself. Each had more than enough shots loaded in them. They would be destroyed in seconds; Marcus would hardly waste half of his ammunition to kill them all.

Spock found Uhura's hand and gripped it tightly. Now with only seconds left of their lives and to come to peace with their inevitable death, crewmembers both on and off the bridge came to their final thoughts. Some embraced one another, confessed things, whispered condolences and sought comforts in each other. However, most had no words. Most simply closed their eyes and waited.

"I'm sorry," Jim said facing his bridge crew. He looked back at the massive gunship and watched as its large cannon-like guns aimed right for them. He watched his crew, watched his friends. Fighting back the waves of terror and doomed resignation that he had been the one to cause the death of his crew Jim couldn't help but feel a wave of regret knowing that Lara was going to die again...all because of him and his pride. She wasn't his anymore...but he still cared about her, had a special place in his heart for her and their memories. If only he could tell her that...

The large guns fueled up and then...failed. Both weapons died down all life sucked out of them. Sulu looked down at his readings, "Their weapons are powered down, sir."

_"Enterprise-can you hear me?"_

Jim felt his eyes widen, "Scotty...?"

There was a small mess of static but Uhura managed to make it to her station and clear up the weak signal. Spock had rushed back to his station as well and tried to isolate the exact location of the ships chief engineer.

_"Guess what I found behind Jupiter."_

Now a wide, dumbfounded smile came to Jim's face, "You're on that ship?!"

_"I'm sure as Ifrinn not on the Enterprise, Captain! An' seein' as how I've just committed an act o' treason against a Starfleet admiral I'd bloody well like to get off this bloody ship-now beam me out!"__  
_  
Kirk, still reeling from his surprise and genuine relief from hearing the engineer's voice had to close his eyes for a moment to get his mind back on track, "Uh...we-we're a little low on power at the moment, Scotty. Stand by, we're working on it."

_"What do you mean? What happened to the Enterprise-oh! Call you back!"__  
_  
His signal cut off, "Scotty?" Jim called out but there was no reply. For a moment he thought he had heard the clomping of large boots behind the engineer's voice. He had probably been forced to run away...

Jim ignored the other bad scenarios of what could have happened to Scotty and moved to the back of the command center where his science officer was sitting. "Spock, our ship-how is she?"

"Our options remain very limited, Captain. We cannot fire and we cannot flee."

"There is one option," Jim said to him. He took a breath and looked over at his communications officer, "Uhura, as soon as you can re-establish contact with Scotty, patch him through," he looked back at his first officer, "Mr. Spock, you have the conn."

Jim turned and headed for the lift. Without hesitating, the Vulcan science officer followed after his captain. He spoke with a slightly anxious tone as the door closed behind him. "Captain I strongly object-"

"To what? I haven't said anything yet." Kirk said glancing at Spock over his shoulder.

Spock however was not so easily swayed. "I believe I can make a reasonable attempt at divining your intentions based on the limited number of alternatives available to us. To prevent Admiral Marcus from resuming the attack that he launched and was only just prevented from concluding, we must somehow either permanently put his vessel out of action or take control of it. Since we cannot take the ship from without, the only way to do so is from within. And as a large boarding party would quickly be detected and met with appropriate counterforce, it is optimum for you to take as few crewmembers as possible."

They walked out of the lift and down several halls, and past several more crewmembers as Spock continued, "Since there is a good chance one is still likely to eventually encounter resistance, it stands to reason that any boarding party will require personnel with advanced hand-to-hand combat abilities. It also stands to reason that a boarding party would benefit immensely from the presence of someone with innate knowledge of the design and schematics of that ship. All of which would indicate that you plan to ally with Khan and Lara, the very individuals we were sent to destroy and who we decided instead to capture."

"And we would have been destroyed if they hadn't saved our lives on Kronos. Or have you forgotten _that_ little fiasco."

"The image remains still in my memory, Captain. However those actions were most likely carried out for a reason. Khan does nothing without reason; he will use Lara against us. They are both warriors, each are bred to be fighters. That means that in addition to knowing ground combat, weapons, and ship capabilities, they are also familiar with tactics and strategy. Faced with death, someone like that focuses on survival. I do not doubt for an instant that their saving our lives was a means to an end."

"And what end is that, Spock?"

"We do not yet know. But for all of their commendable actions on Kronos, neither Khan nor Lara have revealed it to us. I have no doubt that it exists and that its nature is not benign. Furthermore, Admiral Marcus's guilty actions do not-in any way invalidate their crimes."

Kirk sighed and rounded a corner, "Yeah well we're just going to have to look over that little detail. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'."

Spock kept up with his Captain and was ready to retort the quote, "An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects."

They came around another corner and Kirk gave the Vulcan a cursory nod, "Still…it's a hell of a quote."

The science officer paused as he realized he could not change his captain's mind. "If you are determined to do this, I will go with you."

"No, I need you on the bridge."

Spock shot out his hand and forced Jim to stop and face him, "If that is the case then I must insist. Captain—I _cannot_ allow you to do this. One of my principal functions on this ship is to ensure that, where possible, reason and logic prevail in the making of all decisions. It would not be carrying out my duties if I failed to prevent you from acting in what is patently a self-destructive manner, something I believe you are doing at this moment—"

"_You're right!_" Kirk nodded to him, frustration and anxiety pouring out in his words.

Both shaken from his sudden reaction and not used to the captain agreeing with him, Spock suffered a brief moment of confusion, "Captain?"

"You're right, okay? Look every call I've made since this whole business started has gone from bad to worse. That's why it's now on me to go over there. It's not logic, there's no reason behind it. It's just a feeling-a _gut_ feeling," Jim took a breath and looked down at his boots, "I'm sorry I pulled you into this. I'm sorry I pulled the Enterprise and its crew into this. I'm sorry for—I'm sorry for a lot of things. Look the Enterprise needs someone in that chair who knows what the hell he's doing. And that's not me-Spock it's you. I don't know what a great captain would do in a situation like this. I only know what I can do."

Jim turned on his heel and walked off quickly to another part of the ship. Spock watched him leave and considered for a moment running after him. Maybe more argument, more forcing at him the ways of reason would change his mind. A careful point here or a highlighted emphasis on a bad idea there. But there just wasn't enough time to argue with the captain. So, resolving to discuss the topic later in more detail, Spock turned and made his way back to the bridge.

* * *

Khan had been watching Lara the entire time they were in the medical bay. She was just as stone cold stiff as him. _Good, don't let them see your true self darling_. He thought as she gazed back at him. Only her eyes would give away any hints of emotion and only those who knew what they were looking for would see it. Khan could see it. She was telling him with her dark, hypnotic eyes that she loved him. Khan only wished he could show her how much he felt the same…or wished he had the courage to say it. _Bleeding coward_, he said to himself and cast his eyes downward. Lara was sure to notice that…damn.

It took him a moment to realize that another figure had come into his space. Khan lifted his eyes to meet Kirk's commanding gaze. "Tell me everything you know about that ship," he glanced back at Lara, "Both of you."

The woman shrugged her shoulders, "To tell you everything about the opponent would take more time than we have, Captain."

"Well give me a summary." Kirk sounded like he was annoyed by her.

Khan, wishing to speed up things to get to the real reason why Kirk was standing in front of them spoke up, "Dreadnought class. Two times the size, three times the speed. Modified to be operated by a minimal crew. Unlike most Federation vessels, it is built solely for combat."

Kirk felt his jaw tighten as he looked between both prisoners, "Listen to me. I am going to do everything I can to make you answer for what you did. But right now," he rested his eyes on Lara's face, "I need your help."

Lara, for the briefest of moments, had a look of…sympathy in her eyes. For a moment, Jim thought he saw the old Lara resurface. But the moment was lost as she gave him one of her wicked grins, "Of _course_ you need _our_ help, Captain. As Mr. Spock would say, it is patently obvious. Shall we help him dear?"

She had aimed the question at Khan who watched Jim and said, "In exchange for what? Or do you think that we'll be helping you out of the kindness of our hearts?"

Kirk faced the stoic man and, thinking back to what Spock had said-_a man like Khan does nothing without reason_-came up with the first thing that came to his head. "You said you'd do anything for your crew. For your 'family'," he pointed back at Lara, using her to gain _some_ form of empathy from Khan, "Help me. And I can guarantee their safety."

"Captain," Khan gave him a small, pitying smile, his baritone voice echoing against the walls, "You can't even guarantee the safety of your _own_ crew."

Again, Jim felt his jaw clench. The fact that he felt he was playing a losing game of chess with these two was enraging enough. But now that Khan's damned self-assurance about always being right was downright infuriating. And the worst part? It was probably true.

Kirk let his eyes leave Khan's for a moment. If he didn't he was sure to go on another punching spree with that bastard's face as target practice. He glanced at McCoy who was busying himself at a workstation. "Bones, what are you doing with those tribbles?"

McCoy shot one small white tribble with a vial of blood and explained, "These tribbles are dead. I'm injecting Khan and Lara's platelets into the deceased tissue of a necrotic host. Their cells regenerate like nothing I've ever seen." He finished by injecting another vial into the second, larger, brown tribble.

Kirk looked at Lara, "So are you coming with me?" Then he moved his eyes to meet Khan's, "Or do I have to try and do this alone?"

* * *

The same security team that had been watching the prisoners in the medical bay now surrounded all three figures as they walked down the corridors. Lara walked behind the two men and made sure to keep between them. As they rounded a corner she reached out and quickly touched her fingertips to Khan's bare hand. He gave her a small, imperceptible squeeze and before anyone else could notice, their hands were at each-others sides again.

Lara sighed with relief. Finally after being separated for so long, finally she got to touch him again to know that he is really there. That he is there for her…and she is there for him.

"_You wanna do what?"_ Montgomery Scott hissed through the communicator at the captain.

"We're coming over there even though we're going to have to do it without the use of the transporter. All the Enterprise has left that's still functioning are the independently powered maneuvering thrusters. Not enough push to get us to the moon, much less Earth. But enough to fine-tune ship position inside a spacedock—or move us closer to where you are. Sulu's shifting the Enterprise into position even as we speak." Jim said as the entire group, security officers, prisoners and captain made their way through the corridors.

"_To this ship?"_ Scotty's voice either went up a few octaves or the communicator had a brief malfunction, _"How?"_

Khan spoke without hesitation, "There's a cargo door: hangar seven, port 101A. This hangar is equipped with an internal manual override system. You need to locate the manual override to open the airlock."

"_Are you crazy? Whoever you are?"_

Lara spoke up from her place behind the two men, "Don't worry Mr. Scott. He knows what he is talking about."

"_Well _that_ is certainly reassuring."_ Scotty made no attempt to mask his sarcasm and Lara was glad he didn't. However she did give a rather dramatic eye roll at the communicator.

Jim spoke into the communicator, "Take my word for it Scotty. Just listen to him, it'll be alright."

"_Well just…let me get this straight. You wanna shoot out of the Enterprise's _garbage chute_, then I'm supposed to open an airlock—to space—whereupon I dinna know what happens to you because before you get inside I freeze and die and explode!"_

Khan clipped back at him, "It will be your captain and two of his prisoners who are speeding towards you at four hundred meters a second. If you don't find and activate that manual override, it is we who will smash into the outer hull like insects on a windshield."

"_Och aye," _Scott scoffed at him, _"I certainly wouldn't want _you_ to get hurt. Big ray of sunshine you are…"_

* * *

Back on the bridge, Spock leaned down and close to Uhura as she sat at her station. "Lieutenant, from our current position is it possible to establish contact with New Vulcan?"

She looked back up at him, "I'll do my best."

"Thank you," he moved away and slid into the now empty chair, "Mr. Sulu where are we?"

"Almost there. I'm aligning our ship now," the helmsman replied as his eyes focused on several different readouts at once, "Their main systems are still offline, but sensors indicate gradual restoration is in progress." Glancing back he continued, "I can't predict how much time we have until they've reestablished weapons or drive capacity."

Spock nodded at him stiffly, "Let us hope their ability to reinstate onboard functionality is exceeded only by Mr. Scott's uniquely individual aptitude for inducing chaos."

* * *

The hatch to the chute was lifted open by two security officers. Lara, now dressed in a silver EV suit was the first to jump down into the hole. Khan came after and soon Kirk landed next to them. As the hatch was closed Lara found herself staring at the tiny opening and felt her stomach flip. She hadn't done anything like this in a while.

"_Captain," _Sulu said to them over their suits comms, _"your departure vector is now aligned with the specified cargo door on the other vessel. But there's nothing we can do about the intervening debris field."_

"Of course, there's always a debris field." Lara said rolling her shoulders.

"We'll have to maneuver around anything we encounter." Kirk said as he pictured the vast number of possible pieces of floating metal waiting for them out that tiny door.

Lara felt her eyes roll, "And here I was planning on flying right through everything I came upon."

Jim glanced over at Khan, "Is she always like this with you?"

Khan kept his eyes forward, "Unfortunately…"

Lara whipped around and stared at him, "Wha—"

But she was interrupted by the static of Scotty's communicator filtering through their comms, _"Okay. I'm in the hangar bay…give me a minute."_

"When did I—" Lara tried to speak to Khan but again, Scotty's voice cut through.

"_I'm running,"_ he hissed at them, obviously out of breath, _"Uggghhhh…."_

Lara gave up and huffed at Khan, turning around to face the tiny door again.

There was a small pause then Sulu's voice came over the comms to them, _"Captain, the ships are aligned. You are good to go. Provided the other vessel does not alter its current position, I should be able to hold this alignment as long as necessary."_

"Copy that," Kirk replied, "Scotty, you ready for us yet?"

* * *

On board the warship, the chief engineer slowed down in front of the very door he was supposed to open. He stared at the door for a moment and caught his breath.

"Wh-whoa hold on a sec now. This airlock door I'm lookin' at is very wee…I mean—i-its small. Only…four meters or so in diameter. And you're comin' straight across this way? It's goin' to be like jumpin' out of a movin' car, off a bridge, an' into a shot glass."

* * *

Jim felt his shoulders tense, "That's okay. I've done this before." He said to Scotty via his suits comms.

Khan and Lara both looked at him, Khan with a raised brow-much like Spock usually looked at him.

The captain felt himself growing increasingly anxious as he tried to explain, "Yeah it was vertical. We jumped onto a…" he trailed off and cleared his throat, "It doesn't matter."

Lara again felt her eyes roll, "Mr. Scott did you find the manual override?"

* * *

Back on board the admiral's ship Scott hissed into his communicator, "Not yet, not yet! I'm in the hangar. Just…give me a minute lass!"

He looked left and right, searched for the control panel he knew was there. The chief whipped around in a circle again and then he spotted the panel. He ran over to it, the controls similar to that of the Enterprise. Scotty began to study the various controls and buttons…so much that he didn't notice a door swish open at the back of the hangar behind him.

* * *

Jim felt a small sheen of sweat begin to build up on his brow. He glanced over at the other two people standing with him. Khan was facing the door and Lara had taken to leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chest as she tapped her foot impatiently against the metal floor.

"_Captain,"_ Spock's voice nearly startled Jim, _"I feel I must restate that there is a considerable debris still drifting between our ships. At your calculated departure velocity, contact with even a seemingly insignificant fragment would be cat—"_

"Don't you dare say 'catastrophic'," Kirk took a breath to calm himself down, "Are we good to go or not?"

"_Yes, Captain. If you choose to define 'good' as taking into account—"_

Not wanting to hear anymore Kirk cut him off, "Scotty, you ready for us?"

"_Just…give me two seconds! Ya mad bastard!" _came a flustered Scott over the comm.

* * *

On the bridge, McCoy leaned down to be eye level with his commanding officer. "Tell me this is gonna work."

Spock glanced up at him, "I have neither the information nor the confidence to do so, Doctor."

Bones straightened up and crossed his arms. Letting out a held breath he growled, "Aren't you a real comfort."

* * *

"_Okay, okay I'm set to open the door."_ Scotty finally said to them. Khan was the first to bend down and rest on one knee. Lara followed suit, kneeling down in front of him. Kirk followed and caught sight of Khan's hands which were now resting against Lara's hips lightly.

Jim held back a sarcastic remark and instead asked the two, "You both ready?"

Lara only nodded but it was Khan's bold, rumbling voice that irked him, "Are _you_?"

Again Jim felt like he was being outplayed. And he probably was. He chose to ignore the remark and again addressed his suit's comm, "Okay Spock…pull the trigger."

"_Yes Captain…launching activation sequence in three…two…one…"_

The small, airtight door in front of the three opened. There was a slight feeling of all the air being sucked out-probably because it actually was-and then all three were blasted out of the chute like a cannon had been shot off. They all raced out into the debris ridden field in space…where the tangled mess of battle awaited their arrival.

* * *

_Review, fav and follow! Lots of love!_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Hello my lovely readers! Well here is the next chapter, lots of suspense in this one...yay! Ummmm...I honestly have nothing else to say. Alrighty then on with the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**_

* * *

_"...launching activation sequence in three...two...one..."__  
_  
Lara barely had time to register the door opening before she saw the dark void of space surrounding her. All three figures shot out of the vessel, Lara in front of Khan and Jim. The digital readout on her heads-up-display showed her a lit up path that she was supposed to follow.

She didn't know how close the other men were behind her but she was grateful that they could communicate. "How fast are we moving?"

"Lara, I'm afraid that information is irrelevant at the moment," Spock's voice crackled over the speakers at her.

Again, the eye roll made an appearance, "I was just curious..."

They flew faster toward the other ship and Jim spoke into his built in speaker, "Scotty, you're gonna be ready with that door right?"

The engineer's voice crackled over their built in speakers, _"If ye stop pesterin' me then maybe I will…Captain."_

Lara huffed, "If I end up on the side of Marcus' ship, I will not be happy."

As the gained more speed, flying through the void of space they all heard Spock's voice, _"Captain, you have debris directly ahead and immediately in your path."_

"Copy that." Jim said as his eyes landed on the large chunk of metal he was speeding toward. He fired off his backpack and just managed to veer off the oncoming path of the debris. Drifting shards of glass, metal and plastic flew past him and Jim had to keep correcting himself in order to avoid being hit. He fought and fought and thankfully found a clearing in the debris field.

"_Whoa Jim you're way off course." _McCoy's voice echoed against his ears.

"I know, I know—I can see that!" The captain called out and corrected his course once again.

* * *

In the dimly lit hangar bay, Scotty continued his quick and desperate attempt at figuring out the controls in front of him. He checked the interior of the hangar for the hundredth time, making sure he was in fact standing at the right controls.

Thankfully he was in fact standing at the correct set of controls. More beads of sweat ran down his back as Scotty looked down again at his shaking hands. That damnable override had to exist. He just had to find it.

"_Very close now Mr. Scott." _Spock's voice nearly startled the engineer.

"Uh…" Scotty trailed off and then…there! He gave a tentative swipe of his hand over the screen and a number of readouts lit up. Finally he found what he was looking for. The release that would open up the door for the captain and his prisoners to fly through was right there in plain sight. Now all he needed was to secure his ass to the console so he didn't get pulled out into space.

Looking around Scotty found a loose length of binding strap and began to wrap one end of it around the base of the console and the other end around his left wrist. With the communicator sticking out of his mouth Scotty stood and double checked that he in fact pulled up the correct manual override. Perfect all he had to do was press the very large, very green button at the correct time.

That's when he heard a voice behind him and felt the muzzle of a phaser press gently to his back, "Don't move."

* * *

"_Use your display, Captain," _Sulu said anxiously to Jim, _"You must correct precisely thirty-seven-point-two degrees to your right."_

"Yup…got it," Kirk said easily dodging a large chunk of floating metal. "Scotty, you're gonna be ready with that door right?"

Lara glanced over at the form of the captain as he made minor adjustments to his course. _"Miss…Harrison you are coming up on a large obstacle," _Spock said over the comms to her.

"Obviously," Lara replied and moved to her left. She felt herself shoot out and she quickly activated the jets on her back, keeping herself from flying too far off course. Readjusting her flight path she saw on her visor's HUD that she was only half a degree off of the path they needed to be taking.

* * *

The engineer felt the phaser press against his back, communicator dropping out of his mouth and onto the floor.

"Turn around. Slowly."

Scotty complied with the cold, scary voice. He turned around and tried to keep his left hand out of view. The uniformed security officer that was currently holding a phaser to his chest glanced behind the engineer, narrowing his gaze as he returned it to the chief's eyes.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Scotty smiled eagerly at him, "Uh…wee bit o' maintenance on the airlock console—you're big…" _Buy them time, _the chief thought as he began to ramble on to the officer, _buy everyone time._

* * *

"Mr. Scott, you are ready with the door correct?" Lara called over the speakers.

They were getting very close now, and they had yet to hear anything else from the chief.

"Scotty?" Kirk called

Uhura's voice sounded in their helmets, _"Captain, he can't seem to hear you. I'm working on getting his signal back. Stand by."_

Jim could almost make out the detailed edges of the door, they were so close. Where the hell was Scotty…

_Ping._

He looked down, startled at the sudden high pitched noise he heard. There was a tiny crack crawling across the face of his helmet. Funny how the tiniest of particles, when hit at high velocity, can cause the heart to race and that sickening feeling of impending doom to crawl up your spine. The small crack began to grown and branch out until it covered the entire right side of Kirk's visor.

"Damnit…" Jim could hardly see anything now that the cracks were crawling up the side of his glass visor.

"_Captain what is it?" _Spock called out to him.

"My helmet faceplate was struck. Uhura tell me you have Mr. Scott back!"

"_Not yet—I'm still working on getting back his signal…"_

* * *

"…_his communicator's working—I don't know why he isn't responding."_ Scotty heard Uhura's voice come from the communicator he had dropped on the floor.

He glanced down at the discarded device which also brought the security officer's attention to it. "What the hell is that?"

"I'm in uh…g-general maintenance—are you Starfleet or private security…"

"Who the hell is that?" the officer gestured toward the communicator again.

"…because you look like private security."

* * *

"_Imminent collision detected," _Sulu called sharply over the comms.

"_Khan use evasive action. There is debris directly ahead." _Spock informed Kirk's companion.

"I see it," he answered quickly. Khan flew to his left and then down and around a large chunk of metal. "Lara move down a few degrees…you're close to—"

His signal cut off and Lara barely had time to register the static she heard before she had to duck down to avoid being hit. _"Mr. Sulu did we lose Khan?" _she heard Spock; he hadn't closed the channel so she could hear everything that was going on inside the Enterprise.

"_I don't know Commander," _Sulu replied to him in a frenzied and anxious tone.

Jim glanced over to his left and saw Lara flying a bit in front of him but Khan was nowhere to be seen. "Was Khan hit?" he called to his bridge crew.

"Khan? Talk to me, are you alright?" Lara's voice shook slightly as she felt the tiny wisps of fear crawl up her spine, "Khan…?"

"_Stand by we're attempting to get his signal back," _Spock reported to them both.

"_Captain," _Sulu abruptly interrupted the tension, _"You need to adjust your course to target destination to one-eight-three by four-seven-three degrees."_

Kirk complied and adjusted his course as he heard Lara's slightly panicked voice, "Sulu please, tell me you have something. Does anyone have anything?"

"_We're working on it Lara," _Uhura's voice crackled at them, _"It's difficult tracking all three of you in that debris field."_

Lara scoffed and moved herself to the right by a few degrees. She glanced over at Jim and was going to make a snarky comment but stopped when he said, "Mr. Spock, my faceplate display is down. I'm flying blind."

"Oh, great I—" Lara stopped and had to quickly move herself up and away from the rather large hunk of metal she was flying toward. She flipped around and tumbled for a second before she was finally able to steady herself. Looking forward she was about to move back on the correct path when her display sputtered and then died.

"Um…Mr. Spock, would it be bad if I and the Captain were both flying blind? Because we are."

"_Judging by the fact that hitting your target destination is now mathematically impossible, yes that would not be a good thing Mrs. Harrison."_

Jim sighed, "Spock when I get back we really need to talk about your bedside manner…"

Lara huffed, "Typical regulation Starfleet equipment always fails. Cheaply made for mass distribution…"

* * *

Sulu whirled around in his chair, "Commander they're not gonna make it."

The commander looked up at the display of both the Captain's and Lara's progress. One yellow readout out for the captain and a light blue for Lara. Both were significantly off course and both were heading towards their end.

Spock tried to think of something, someway that he could help them but he was, for the first time in a long while, drawing a blank.

That's when they heard another voice, one that had not been heard for a while, _"I see you Kirk."_

* * *

"My display is still functioning. You're two hundred meters ahead of me at my one o'clock. Come to your left at two degrees and follow me."

Jim glanced over and did as Khan instructed. He watched Khan who gave him a small grin then the man turned his attention to the figuring flying just in front of them. "Lara, darling move to your right a half degree and keep straight."

She did as he said and all three kept still as they arrived closer and closer to their destination. Jim then realized they hadn't heard from the engineer who was supposed to help them out in a while.

"Scotty," he exclaimed, "we're getting close now. We're gonna need a warm welcome. Scotty? Do you copy—Scotty?"

* * *

"If you can hear us Mr. Scott," Spock ordered anxiously, "open the door in ten…"

"_Scotty!" _Kirk yelled desperately over his comms.

"…nine…" Spock continued counting down; he felt his muscles begin to tense.

* * *

On board the admiral's warship, Spock's voice called out from the discarded communicator on the floor. Scott grinned pleasantly up at the large security officer and twisted his arm even tighter around the strap he was going to use for his life-line.

"That person counting down, what is that?"

"…_eight…"_

The engineer looked up at him innocently, "What? I don't hear anything."

"…_seven…" _Spock's voice came clearly up toward the two.

"_Mr. Scott where are you?" _Kirk's voice now sounded on the verge of panic.

"You sure?" the security officer asked him, the phaser still pointed to his chest.

Scott scrunched up his nose and feigned ignorance, "Yeah, I honestly don't know what you're talkin' about."

"…_six…five…four…"_

"_Scotty! Get ready!"_

"…_three…two…one…_Now_ Mr. Scott." _Spock called out with a tight voice.

"_Scotty open the door now!" _Kirk yelled at him.

"_Mr. Scott open the door now!" _Even Spock sounded like he was panicking.

Scott eyed the security officer and shook his head, "Sorry about this mate."

The guard frowned at him, "Sorry about what?"

Spock's voice rose slightly, _"Scott open the door!"_

"_Scotty the door! Open it now!"_

The chief sucked in an air full of lungs and turned around sharply. He slammed his free hand down onto the large green button, putting all of his weight onto it. At the far back of the hangar, the small door whooshed open. As soon as it was open, all the air was sucked outward into the open void of space and pulling the security officer with it. With his left arm still strapped to the console, Scott grimaced and found himself being pulled and stretched out full length in the direction of the open door.

* * *

Lara barely noticed the lone figure shoot out of the open door. She had flipped herself around at the last minute, and assuming the others had done the same began firing off her jetpack. Entering the warship feet first, she used her jetpack to help slow down their high velocity and momentum. She felt the weight of the artificial gravity field and saw Scott flailing as he tried to reach out for the control panel.

The engineer flailed his right hand around for a second longer then quickly hit the large green button again. The hangar door shut and he instantly fell to the floor on his front side, breathing heavily and sucking in as much air as he could get. Thankfully the air pressure quickly regained its normality and Scott's spinning head came to a slow stop.

All three figures fell to the deck of the long hangar and rolled, skidded and tumbled down the entire length of the place, slowing down gradually but not as fast as Jim would have liked. Finally after spinning around for several seconds, all three came to a halt on their stomachs not far from a gasping and sweating Scott.

"Welcome aboard," Scotty wheezed at them.

Lara slowly regained her composure and leaned up on her knees, "Nice to see you again Mr. Scott."

He nodded at her, "Likewise lass…how was being dead?"

"Boring," she deadpanned and helped Khan lean up as well.

Scotty shrugged at her then glanced at the man she was currently assisting, "Who is that?"

Jim finally leaned up, "Ugghh…" he groaned as his back creaked and his body screamed at him, "Khan, Scotty. Scotty, Khan."

"Hello," the engineer offered with a tiny wave.

Khan however did not waste time on the pleasantries, he glanced around the hangar and turned back to the group, "They'll know we're here. Marcus will have all other approaches to the bridge secured if only as a precaution. I know another route."

Lara stood with help from Khan and both began removing their helmets and suits. Jim also began to take off his suit, at a much slower place then the other two. When they were all dressed down in their casuals, Jim and Khan in black shirts and Lara in her bright white shirt, Jim opened up his back pack to reveal four disassembled phasers.

Jim handed out the phasers and when all four had one he looked at both Lara and Khan pointedly, "They're locked to stun."

Lara rolled her eyes and Khan pursed his lips, "Theirs won't be."

The captain gave them both a cheeky grin, "Then try not to get shot."

* * *

Spock felt his shoulders relax now that it was confirmed that Kirk and his prisoners had successfully landed on the warship. Of course they weren't completely out of danger but for the moment the entire bridge crew relaxed.

He was about to begin analyzing the interior of the ship when he heard Uhura from behind him, "Commander, transmission with New Vulcan was successful."

Looking back at her Spock took a moment to admire her exceptional skill in achieving the near impossible, "On screen. Please."

All eyes on the bridge landed on the view screen where an old but incredibly wide face came to life through the muffled static of the transmission. Behind him, there could be seen many other figures moving around hurriedly. A new civilization was being built from the memory and in honor of an old one. The man gazing toward the commander was playing a huge part in the rebuild and resurrection of the lost planet.

"Mr. Spock," the wise old man declared in a gentle, but matter-of-fact voice.

"Mr. Spock," the commander responded as well.

* * *

Khan and Lara walked quickly down the dark corridors leading Jim and Scotty. Or they thought they were leading them. Jim was in fact keeping an eye on both of his prisoners. He watched how Lara followed directly behind Khan and to his right. She did it almost automatically without Khan having to tell her where he needed her or what he required.

They all turned a corner and walked down into a long, narrow room. It was dark and the only light sources were the consoles lining the place or the few back up lights scattered about the ceilings. Luckily the main power had yet to come back on.

"They're gonna have full power and we're walking," Scotty whispered harshly from behind Jim.

Khan came to a halt in front of a console and handed Lara his phaser. She took it silently and quickly stuffed it down the back waist of his pants. Lara then did the same with her weapon. Jim hesitated and glanced at Scotty, telling him silently to do as they had done, and put away his phaser as well.

Entering a quick series of commands Khan explained their movements to the engineer, "This path we're taking runs adjacent to the engine room. They know they won't be able to use their weapons here without destabilizing the warp core…"

"Which gives us the advantage," Lara finished for him, nodding at him as Khan stood and gently gripped her elbow and guided her off.

Pausing in their places Scotty moved closer to Kirk and asked, "Where'd you find this guy? And what the bloody hell happened to Lara?"

"It's a long story Scott," Jim muttered as he hurried off to keep up with the other two.

* * *

"…I will be brief," Spock said to his older self, "in your travels did you ever come across a man named Khan?"

The wise savant's face remained passive but his body language showed how genuinely fearful he was as a shiver seemed to crawl up his spine. He paused for a long while, composing his thoughts and response. "As you know," he finally said slowly, "I have made a vow never to give you information that could potentially alter your destiny. Your path is yours and yours alone…"

Spock nodded at him, he understood why. They had both discussed this very matter several times and had both come to the exact agreement Mr. Spock was talking about right now.

"That being said," now the commander looked back up at him with a slight glimmer of hope in his eyes, "Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous adversary the enterprise and her crew ever faced. He is brilliant, ruthless and will not hesitate to kill every single one of you in the pursuit of whatever personal goal he has set for himself."

"And what of Lara Sheppard? Was she ever involved?"

Again the wise savant seemed to shiver but this time it was with regret, "Miss Sheppard was one of my dearest students. She followed in her father's footsteps, and became one of the most prized and sought out minds in biological research and applications," he paused and seemed to become very mournful, "She was killed by Khan and his crew during an attack on her station, Regula I while she was protecting a device from the very man."

Spock felt his brow crease, "You were close?"

"She was my student and dear friend…whatever else might have been is lost," he took a breath, "As for Khan…wherever he is, I urge you to stay as far from him as humanly possible. If you do not, I guarantee you—lives will be lost."

There was a long, cold silence that fell on the bridge. "Did you defeat him?" the younger Spock finally asked.

The older Spock's wise eyes crinkled and he nodded slowly, "At great cost, yes."

Commander Spock stared forward and uttered one small, hopeful word, "How?"

* * *

"I don't mean to tempt fate here," Scotty whispered harshly from behind the others. Khan again was leading with Lara one step behind him. "But where is everyone?"

Khan spoke to him and barely glanced over his shoulder, "This ship was designed to run by a minimal crew. One, if necessary."

"One!" Scotty exclaimed, "I don't see how—"

Khan stopped listening when he saw the lone security officer pounce around the corner and go to attack him. He blocked the oncoming punch and sent his enemy flying into the opposite wall. He shouted and flew another fist into the security officer's stomach.

He heard Lara shout and he glanced back to see another set of security officers coming at the others. Lara swung her fist around and sent it into her attacker's windpipe. The man stopped and grabbed hold of his throat, chocking and wheezing. The girl laughed and backed up a couple steps, then broke out into a sprint. She jumped up, used the wall and kicked off it.

Wrapping her arm around his neck she twirled around the man's body and pulled him over her shoulder, slamming him to the ground. She stopped and locked eyes with Khan and then stomped her foot down onto the man's neck…a loud crack echoing throughout the corridor.

Khan gave her a wicked grin then turned back around and kicked his assailant in the stomach, sending the man flying backwards. He had luckily timed it perfectly and as the first security officer flew through the air he landed into another officer that had come around the corner. Satisfied that all the officers who had been attacking himself and Lara were either unconscious or dead he looked back at the captain and his engineer.

Both were still in the midst of their fights so he quickly grabbed Lara's hand and pulled her away down a dark hallway. "If you really needed a moment alone then I'm all for it love." Lara said to him as he pulled her further and further away from the others.

Khan didn't say anything for a long while until he came to a full stop in a corner of the large console room they were in. He pulled Lara close to him then, hugging her to his chest. She reacted immediately and snaked her arms around his back and buried her face into his muscular chest. Lara took a deep breath through her nose and took in his scent…oh how she missed that scent.

"For a moment back there, I thought I really lost you," Lara whispered and looked up at him.

Khan watched her for a moment before resting his forehead against hers. He took in a deep breath through his own nose, "You shall never lose me, darling."

Lara smiled up at him and leaned up, placing her lips on his softly. Khan returned the kiss, wrapping a hand around the back of her neck and using to other to grasp her waist. He gripped her tight and kissed her deeper than he ever had before, Lara responded to the embrace and ran her fingers up his back. They pulled away from each other and Lara couldn't help but smile at him gently. She moved her hands to his face and stroked her fingers across his cheeks and said to him, "Promise me?"

"I promise Lara," he watched her and looked like he wanted to say something before he stopped himself. Shaking his head he cupped her face in his large hands, "Come on, let's go find the captain before he blows up this ship with us still on board."

"Knowing him, he might save us all and then blow up the ship…because he's just that good of a person," Lara snickered and removed her arms from around Khan. He nodded and, taking her hand in his once again, led her off to find their companions.

* * *

_Review, fav and follow! Thanks for reading, lots of love!_


	12. Chapter 12

**Helloooo! How are we all today? Well I'm doing pretty good. Been up for nearly 24 hours and I'm not feeling it at all...heh...maybe a little. Oh well, as Top Gear plays in the background I post this new, exciting chapter for your enjoyment. Have fun, thanks for reading! You are all the best ever!** _**Lots of love!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**_

* * *

As soon as Spock had closed the channel with his older self he stood from his chair. Everyone on the bridge was suffering from the mounting tension of waiting to hear from Kirk and the others; however the commander did not act or show any signs of anxiety. Whether that was to keep moral stable or he honestly was not feeling it, Bones could not and probably never would be able to tell.

The doctor huffed in annoyance as he stood by waiting for word from the Captain and watched Spock gently skirt around the command chair to Lieutenant Uhura.

"Lieutenant, I need you to assemble all senior Medical and Engineering staff who can be spared from critical positions and have them gather in the weapons bay."

She watched him with a scrunched brow, "The…weapons bay sir?"

Spock spared her a quick, curt nod, "Correct, at haste if you please."

"All right." Uhura ignored her confusion and did as the commander had ordered.

The Vulcan, satisfied with giving out this order moved over to where Bones was standing, "Dr. McCoy. You inadvertently activated a torpedo. Do you think you would be able to replicate the process?"

Bones simply gaped at him for a moment and then growled out, "Dammit man I'm a doctor not a torpedo technician. Even assuming that I could, why the hell would I want to do that?"

Of course Spock made no indication as to his emotional reaction to the doctor's rather heated negativity. Instead he gave the doctor another curt nod and said, "The fact that you are a doctor is precisely why I need you to listen very carefully…"

* * *

Jim led Scotty through the dark corridors. They had lost Khan and Lara in the heat of their first little fight and hadn't been able to find either of them or even a damn sign that they were _alive_ anywhere. "Where are they?" Scotty hissed, keeping his phaser out just in case.

The two men came to a stop down a narrow passing; Jim looked around for a moment then mumbled out, "Shhit…"

They really had lost those two. Great now they had to watch out for Marcus's people _and_ Jim's prisoners. Wonderful…

"This way." Khan's voice came from behind them. Both men turned around and saw Khan standing at the end of the narrow passing with Lara right beside him. She had one hand on his shoulder and the other was holding her phaser out at her side.

Khan pulled out his weapon and turned around leading them off with Lara right on his heel. Waiting for a moment, Kirk stopped his chief engineer with a hand on the man's shoulder, "The minute we get to the bridge, drop him. Don't worry about Lara though; she won't do anything without say from Khan."

Scotty was of course confused, he creased his brow and gave his head a slight shake, "Wha—I thought they were helping us."

"I'm pretty sure we're helping them…"

Kirk trailed off and rushed after the prisoners with Scotty close behind. All four had their weapons drawn and were nearly jogging down the halls toward the lift that would take them to bridge. "Just up this way, quickly the power will be back online any second." Lara hissed as all four moved faster and faster toward their destination.

They were only a few steps from the lift when, just as Lara had predicted, the power and lights came back to life. "Shit," Jim cursed as they all broke out into a full run for the elevator.

They entered the turbolift, Khan and Lara standing in front as they could handle the most up front damage it seemed. They waited with bated breath for the lift to come to a stop. Lara gripped her weapon tightly, her chance for revenge was so close…so close and she could finally let her parents rest in peace.

Finally the lift stopped and the doors opened. All four burst out, firing before anyone on the bridge could begin to register what was happening. Jim moved in and took out the ensigns at the weapon system controls with a precisely shot stun blast to the back of their heads.

Lara glanced around and saw little Carol Marcus putting up a fight with her captors but couldn't linger for too long. She looked back and saw Khan engaged with those of the bridge crew who had avoided the phaser blasts. Jumping over chairs and consoles she rushed to his side, sending a solid right hook through an ensign's jaw, knocking him out cold.

Khan gripped her shoulder to inform her that all was clear and both whipped around, holding out their phasers to the stunned bridge crew on the floor of the command deck, just in case any recovered from their unconsciousness. Lara looked up from their position at the front of the bridge, standing slightly behind Khan and to his left.

Before her or Khan could do or say anything else, Jim nodded to his chief. Scott fired off his phaser once, sending a stun blast to Khan square in the chest. He landed hard on the floor of the bridge with a loud thump. Lara held up her phaser, letting it hang off her finger limply.

"Lara, drop it or he drops you." Jim commanded her while kept his eyes planted firmly on Admiral Marcus.

She huffed and rolled her eyes, "You could ask nicely." With that she tossed her phaser away and reached for the sky again.

"Make sure he stays down," Kirk nodded to his chief.

Scotty nodded his head in return and went to move down by Khan stepping past Carol Marcus he held up his hands, "S'cuse me," he said gently to her.

Carol gave him a weak smile and let him pass. Scott came to stand above Khan's limp body and pointed his weapon at Lara, giving her a slightly apologetic grin which Lara only rolled her eyes at.

Jim, with his phaser still aimed at Marcus's chest took a step closer to the man sitting in the command chair, "Admiral Alexander Marcus, by authority granted me under the relevant Starfleet regulations governing the use of unauthorized and excessive force; I hereby relieve you of command and place you under arrest. Now…get out of that chair."

Marcus would not go quietly however. "I want you to stop and think about what you're doing, Kirk. Not about some imaginary future confrontation. About right now. Think about what you did on Kronos. Are you sure you weren't identified? That the Klingon patrol you wiped out didn't pass along the word that they had contacted and been forced into combat with humans? You were on their homeworld illegally, unauthorized. Not only did you not have permission to land on Kronos, you arrived and departed by stealth, having done nothing except resist interrogation and commit murder. That's how the Kilngons will see it…as murder, not as resisting arrest and questioning."

Kirk gave him a thin smile, "Well the K'normians will have some awkward questions to deal with."

The Admiral took a breath and continued his long-winded defense, "It doesn't matter who they blame or if they blame anyone. Nothing changes the fact that war is coming. And whose gonna lead us? _You_?" his voice rose with desperation,

"If I'm not in charge our entire way of life will be at risk! And if you even think that I am abandoning this ship and leaving quietly with you…you're going to have to kill me."

"I'm not going to kill you sir," Kirk said, not moving his phaser an inch, "But I could stun your ass and drag you out of that chair. I'd rather not do that in front of your daughter though." He looked over at her, "You all right?"

Through a shaking breath Carol answered, "Yes, Captain."

During the entire conversation Scott had let his eyes drift away from Khan and Lara. His weapon had slowly lowered as well and Lara moved over inch by inch, quietly as to not raise alarm. As there was a lapse in the talking Khan finally made his move.

Shooting up from his position on the floor he quickly elbowed Scott in the neck, knocking him over to writhe in pain. Lara sprang into action as well, hopping over the steps leading up to the command deck and running toward the captain.

"Jim!" Carol shouted but she was too late. It did not matter how fast Carol or even Jim could have reacted to the two renegades movements, they were simply too quick for anyone to catch them. Khan leaped over the flight console and wrapped his arms around Kirk's shoulder slamming him down onto the floor. Khan yelled out as he sent his fist into Kirk's jaw, not enough to knock him out but certainly enough to slow him down.

Khan stood then to follow after a scrambling Marcus. Jim went to stop him but felt a pair of hands clamp down onto his shoulders. "Not this time." Lara growled and shoved him back down into the floor boards. Standing to follow after Khan, Lara sent a quick but strong kick into Kirk's stomach letting him know to not get up.

Carol Marcus scrambled up to intercept both renegades, "Listen…wait!"

Scornfully, Khan threw Carol back down to the floor and before stepping over her, sent his right foot crashing down into the doctor's thigh. She let out a high-pitched scream of pain and immediately her hands went to grab to burning limb.

Advancing slowly, Khan cornered Admiral Marcus. Carol could only watch as she felt her whole body shake from fear and agony. She let out a whimper as she felt a pair of long, cold fingers wrap around her neck and snake through her hair.

Lara bent down and forced the doctor to look at her, "Your father _killed_ my family," gripping Carol's neck tighter she made her to look over at Khan looming over the admiral, "Now watch as we destroy yours."

Khan forced Marcus into a chair, lips tightening into a sneer as he placed a palm on either side of the man's face. He began to squeeze, "You…should have let me sleep."

The following sounds of snaps and crunches were nearly muffled out by the overwhelming horrific scream that curdled out of Carol Marcus's throat. Lara, still keeping her grip on the doctor laughed out loud and pulled on Carol's blonde tresses tighter. And Jim could only watch from the deck, stunned…there was nothing he could do now…only listen to the chaos.

* * *

As Spock returned to the bridge after giving explicit instructions to Doctor McCoy and the others, he felt a cold chill run up his spine. They had yet to hear word from the Captain. He would have at least checked in by now if they were really running so slow on this mission. But that would not make sense, logically Admiral Marcus's ship had enough systems built into its massive design that the power would have come back on ages ago.

He stepped up and stood in front of the flight controls looking down at the helmsman, "Where is the captain, Mr. Sulu?"

The young man sighed, "Our sensor array's still down, sir. We can't probe the interior of the other ship. I've been trying some workarounds, but even they went down suddenly. I can't seem to find them."

Spock frowned, "Suddenly? Suddenly 'when', Mr. Sulu?"

Looking back up at him Sulu nodded, "Just now, actually, sir. I was starting to make some progress, and everything just went—"

"Divert all noncritical power to shields," Spock ordered sitting down in his chair and straightening his back.

"Shields sir?" Sulu questioned with a confused brow, "According to what I can see they're still working to finalize restoration of their—"

"Shields up," Spock clenched a fist, "_Now_."

Sulu made to reply but quickly recovered and did as he was ordered. Not two seconds later there was a muffled grunt as the view screen came to life.

"_I'm going to make this very simple for you Mr. Spock…"_

* * *

Lara gave Carol Marcus's neck one last squeeze, then shoved her away standing up and moving over to join Khan. He was standing over the admiral's body, fists clenched, breathing heavily. Walking up behind him she gently placed her hands onto his shoulders and began to rub against his tense shoulders.

Eventually he seemed to calm his tension. Glancing around at her, Khan only watched her. She had the exact same look in her eyes. Cold, excited, tense…loving. Turning his body toward her he reached out and placed a hand against the base of her neck, rubbing her collar bone softly.

"…ugh…" They both glanced over, their trance broken. Jim Kirk was leaning up on his hands and knees, attempting to stand when his aching bones were protesting against every move he made.

Khan stepped away from Lara; pulling out his phaser he yanked Jim from the floor. "Darling, open a channel with the Enterprise."

Grinning, Lara went over to the command chair and quickly typed in the commands. Standing up straight she watched Khan pull Jim in front of the view screen, holding his phaser to the back of the Captain's head.

"I'm going to make this very simple for you, Mr. Spock…"

"_Captain…"_ Spock seemed to show a small ounce of emotion as he gazed through the screen at them.

"…your crew, for my crew." Khan finished, pressing the muzzle of his phaser deeper into Kirk's neck.

"_You have betrayed us."_

From behind Khan, Lara crossed her arms and scoffed, "A _wise_ observation, Mr. Spock."

Jim swallowed and growled out, "Spock don't listen to—ah!" he cried out when Khan stopped him by slamming the butt of his phaser into the spot right between Jim's shoulder blades.

As the captain fell back to the floor and struggled to rise Khan bore his eyes into the view screen. "Now, Mr. Spock," he said gently as if he was speaking to a child, "Give me my crew."

"_Suppose I comply with your request," _Spock replied calmly and slowly, _"What will you do when you get them?"_

"Continue the work we were doing before we were banished." At this Lara's arms fell back to her sides. She held up her composure but her mind began to race. She didn't realize that this entire time, that was Khan's true goal. But…as she looked over at him, watched his broad shoulders as they moved in time with his breathing, she came to the conclusion that no matter what she would follow him. Lara loved Khan, loved him so much, she was willing to die for him and even willing to go so far as to kill for him.

"_In which I understand it as the mass genocide and destruction of all beings you find to be less than superior."_

Khan's voice turned thoughtful but still kept its menacing tone, "Shall I destroy you, Mr. Spock? Or will you give me what-I-_want_."

The Vulcan paused and seemed to weigh his position in the situation, _"We have no warp capabilities."_

Without moving or seeming to breathe Khan retorted, "Fortunately mine are perfectly functional. Drop. Your. Shields."

Again Spock paused then said carefully, _"I have no guarantee you will not kill us all." _

Khan grinned and took in a deep breath, "Well then let's play this out logically Mr. Spock. Firstly I will kill your captain to demonstrate my resolve. As to your resolve, if it continues to hold firm, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew. Whether you live or die, I will have my people back."

Lara watched him finish and felt the smallest, faintest tremble of uneasiness crawl up her spine. Khan had never told her he was planning on killing her former crew. Sure she had moved past the memories she had of the years she spent with the crew but she still held a special place in her heart for the friendships she once had with the Enterprise and he crew.

"_Destroy the Enterprise and you destroy your own people." _

Khan again took a breath and retorted back quickly, "Your crew requires oxygen, mine does not. I will target your life-support systems located in the vicinity of the engine nacelles. And once everyone aboard your ship has suffocated, I will walk over your cold corpses until I recover my people. Now," he paused, green eyes smoldering and growled out, "Shall we begin."

Spock watched him for an extended amount of time. Lara could tell he knew he was defeated when his shoulders seemed to slump. _"Mr. Sulu. Lower shields."_

The helmsman seemed to hate the command but he complied. "A wise choice Mr. Spock." Khan said drawing back his leg and sending a quick, solid kick into the stomach of Jim Kirk who had slowly risen to his knees.

Jim fell back, groaning in agony. Lara, ignoring the weak ripples of anxiety creeping across her skin, stepped down from her spot by the command chair and moved over next to Khan. Leaning down she pulled up a readout of the Enterprise and a readout of the admirals-or rather now Khan's ship.

Khan leaned down over her, "I can see my torpedoes in your weapons bay. If they are not mine Commander, I will know it."

"_Vulcans do not lie," _Spock replied coldly, _"The torpedoes…are yours."_

Lara felt him squeeze her shoulder and she activated the transport. She pulled up a digital view of the now full hangar bay. They could both see the number of capsules filling the hangar. Lara then began to run a unit-by-unit deep probe utilizing the warship's main sensor arrays. The computer promptly revealed the interior specifications of nearly half a dozen of the torpedoes. Khan slowly stood as he appeared to finally relax.

"Thank you, Mr. Spock."

"_I have fulfilled your terms," _Spock said stiffly, _"Now fulfill mine."_

Khan took Lara's hand and pulled her up to the command chair with him. He sat down and felt Lara place a hand on the back of the chair and the other on his shoulder. "Well Kirk," Khan breathed out as he punched in several different commands, "It seems I have to return you to your crew…after all,"

Lara saw the lights of the transporter flutter around all three figures slowly rising from the floor, "No ship should go down without her captain."

* * *

_Review, fav, and follow! Till next one :D_


	13. Chapter 13

_**Oh my goodness! I am so so so so sorry it took me this long to finally post this chapter. I got distracted...damn ADD...anyways if you haven't noticed I posted a new story, "The Girl in 221A" (that is part of the reason why I took so long to post this chapter) also six flags and boyfriend and my bestie and barton springs (!) blah! ok i'll stop talking now. Go give a quick read to my new story, let me know what you all think :D **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**_

* * *

"…No ship should go down without her captain."

Jim glanced up and saw the transport lights flutter against his vision. Lara watched him, her hand on Khan's shoulder but her eyes revealed something to him. She looked like she was…sorry. Like she was trying to tell him without any words or any other movements that she was genuinely regretful that it had come to this.

He closed his eyes and when he opened them again it took him a moment to realize where Khan had sent the group. Glancing around he saw that they were in Khan's holding cell. Carol was on the floor clutching her leg gingerly as it swelled and turned a deep purple. Scotty ran up to the glass and kicked and banged, "Let us out o' here now!" he shouted at the security officers.

Jim moved over to Carol to check on her and began to ask, "You oka—"

But he was thrown over as the ship rocked to the side and Jim knew right then why Lara had looked so regretful. Khan was going to kill them all, and there was nothing she or anyone could do about it.

* * *

On board the bridge Sulu's console lit up and flashed warning after warning at him, "He's locking phasers on us sir!"

Spock shook himself and snapped out his order, "Evasive maneuvers. Full impulse—whatever you have."

They felt the ship jerk to the side as she was pattered with phaser blasts and missiles. Spock grabbed hold of the command chair and plopped himself down keeping a tight grip on the arms as he watched the bridge crew work frantically to give Sulu everything he needed.

"Shields at six percent!"

* * *

"Darling take over the weapons I need to take the flight controls." Khan said setting off a large number of phasers and moving over to the flight consoles.

Lara nodded and walked over to the weapons systems. It all looked fairly simple, a lot like the one she had operated on the Enterprise. With shaking hands she reached down and fired off more missiles and phaser blasts. Catching herself from falling as the ship quickly jerked to the side she set off several more rounds then leaned against the console.

"Khan," she called over to him and had to catch her breath, "How much longer do I need to keep this up?"

"Until I say to stop," he clipped at her moving from one set of controls back to the command chair.

Lara chewed her lip and fired off more rounds. As she moved over to the front facing weapon controls something caught her eye. She glanced down and saw the readout of Khan's torpedoes. At first glance everything looked fine to her but as she looked closer…

Pulling up a full digital analysis of the interior of one of the torpedoes Lara read through the lines of code and jumbled numbers. Everything looked normal…except…

"Khan! There's something wrong!"

* * *

"Shields at six percent!" Sulu cried over the alarms and chaos of the bridge. He looked down at his readouts; each shot was hitting the ship precisely. No misses, not even a near miss. Every shot was hitting at parts of the ship that would be detrimental to the outcome of this little firefight. And Sulu knew there was only one person who could know exactly where to hit the Enterprise in order to cripple her. _Lara…what the hell happened to you, _Sulu thought as he raced his mind to figure out how to counter the attacks.

Opposite to Sulu's racing heart and perspiring forehead, Commander Spock looked relatively calm compared to him. "The torpedoes: How much time, Lieutenant?"

"Twelve seconds, sir!" An ensign called to him. Nodding once at him, Spock opened up a shipwide channel.

"Crew of the Enterprise, this is Commander Spock. All decks prepare for imminent proximity detonation."

* * *

Scotty and Kirk had Carol hanging on their shoulders as they practically carried her from the brig to the medical ward. Passing through the halls they heard the voice of one Commander Spock warn about a proximity alert and detonation.

"What the hell is he talking about? What _detonation_?" Scotty asked scrunching up his face in confusion and exhaustion.

Jim picked up the pace and started running down the halls. With a small grin and slightly widened eyes he breathed out, "The torpedoes. He armed the damn torpedoes."

* * *

"What are you talking about?" Khan snapped as he came down to join Lara at the console.

Her eyes widened as she flickered them across the codes. "Oh no…it's armed! One of them is—"

A large blast from the stern of the ship threw them both across the floor. Khan grabbed Lara around the waist and pulled her to his chest as several sparks flew across the bridge. Then more and more explosions followed. The ship felt like it was being torn apart from the inside out…and that's most likely what was happening.

Lara buried her face deeper into Khan's chest as she heard glass shatter and metal groan and creak. More explosions and another loud pop followed as they finally came to a slow stop. Now there were alarms blaring and sprinklers going off all around the edges of the command deck.

Quickly standing up Lara found a still functioning console and began to do a diagnostic of the entire ship. Pulling it up onto the large screen at the front of the bridge she started reading off the damage, "The entire cargo bay has been destroyed. It's obliterated. Life support is out for about half of the ship. Shields, most main systems, weapons…it's gone…"

Closing her eyes she felt the tears burn and threaten to fall, "They…are all gone."

Khan slowly rose to his knees as she spoke. He couldn't believe it; no they were still here somehow. Quickly getting to his feet, Khan moved over to Lara's side and looked at the readouts. "No…" he gasped as he saw what Lara was talking about.

Taking a step back he felt his knees give out and would have crashed to the floor if Lara hadn't caught him. She let him sink to the floor anyways and simply wrapped her arms around his neck, "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."

Again Khan looked at the digital readout of the blown up cargo bay. He felt several tears fall down his cheeks and sucked in a deep breath. Clutching Lara even closer to him he let out a long, bellowing roar, "NO!"

* * *

Sulu couldn't help the small grin that crossed his face. Glancing around at Spock he announced, "Their weapons have been knocked out. Not bad, Commander."

"Thank you, Lieutenant."

Down in the med bay Kirk rounded the corner with Scotty, Carol Marcus hardly limping between them. "Bones!" Jim called out, "Nurse!"

A nurse and an eager looking Uhura rushed over to pull Carol off to the side. Now certain that the young doctor was safe Jim turned to his medical officer.

"Good to see you Jim," McCoy smiled at his captain and gave him a friendly nod.

Jim felt himself smile at his friend, "I can't believe he did it. Spock detonated the torpedoes, he killed Khan's crew."

Bones shook his head, "Jim, Spock's cold but he not _that_ cold. I've got Khan's crew," pointing to his left Kirk followed and saw that the left side of the main recovery ward was currently being occupied by seventy-two frozen capsules. McCoy felt his grin widen, "Seventy-two human popsicles, present and accounted for."

Kirk gaped at the gathered collection of three-hundred-year old frozen men and women, "Son of a bitch…"

* * *

Sulu turned in his seat to fully face the commander, "Sir the internal explosions have completely neutralized the other ship's weapon systems and shields, and quite possibly—"

The sound of dying power made everyone stop in their tracks. After a moment the backup lighting came on and a concerned ensign from the Science station gave a hasty report, "Sir, we have inclusive warp core misalignment. The ship's internal power grid is down."

"Switch to auxiliary power." Spock ordered.

Now a second ensign reported from her station, "Auxiliary power failing, sir."

They all heard a low moan come from somewhere in the ship. Spock thought that their situation couldn't possibly get any worse but a third ensign made his heart drop, "Sir, we appear to be caught in the Earth's gravity well."

Everyone on the bridge sprang into action. Spock looked at his helmsman, "Mr. Sulu: position relative to orbital stations?"

Sulu glanced at his readouts, "Given our present rate of decent sir, there's nothing near enough to get anything big enough to us in time to halt our dive."

Spock took in the information quickly, "Can we change out angle of descent enough to enter a temporary orbit? Even a low one?"

Again, the helmsman looked down at his readings but there was…nothing. Red lights, flashing lights hell even neon pink lights he could have dealt with but all he saw staring back at him was just…black. His console was dead…the helm was dead.

"Commander," he reported calmly though his stammering heart spoke otherwise, "According to what I'm seeing here, I can't do anything."

Spock went to reply but had to catch himself from falling out of his chair as the ship was now being yanked into Earth's gravity. Alarms began blaring; red emergency lights flared to life and started showing the way to the escape pods.

"Mr. Sulu, there must be something." Spock called to him calmly.

Sulu stammered as he worked furiously at his station. Sparks flew as a few pieces broke off, "Sir, if we can't get power back to the engines or shields we'll be incinerated upon re-entry."

Spock lowered his eyes in thought. In less than a second he knew what he needed to do. Taking in a deep breath he ordered, "Sound evacuation. All decks," he quickly typed out on order on his chair and a pair of metal seatbelts unfolded across and down his chest. Looking out at the bridge crew he began ordering them in his most commanding voice,

"As acting captain, I order you to move to the escape pods. I will remain here and buy you all time," he glanced around at them all. None had made any movement toward the exits; they were all just staring at him with large, scared eyes. "As acting captain I order you to evacuate this ship."

Finally, it was Sulu who voiced the collective opinion of the bridge crew, "With all due respect Commander—but we're not going anywhere."

Turning back in his seat, Sulu activated his harness. The rest of the bridge crew followed his lead and soon everyone was secured to their seats tightly. Spock looked around at the entire deck and felt a strange little tickle in the back of his mind. If he wasn't so preoccupied on the current emergency, the Vulcan would have realized that what he was feeling was pride. Pride for the immeasurably stubbornness of humans, proud of his crew…of his friends.

* * *

_Review, fav and follow! Thanks for reading!_


	14. Chapter 14

**OK! First off let me just say that I'm suuuuper sorry for not posting the last(yes i said last) chapter in a more timely manner. I get distracted waaaay too easily. But I sat my butt down and wrote out the final chapter annnndd here it is! Before I let you all read, let me just say how amazing you all are. The response to this story has been incredible! For reals I did not think I would get this much positive feedback, especially for what I did to Lara, I know a lot of you weren't too big of fans of that bit. However, I hope you like what I did for this final chapter...I think a lot of you will be very happy and vocal about your opinions. I have kind of started up a blog on my tumblr page, there will be Q&A and I will post my (very poor) fanart but hey, it'll be a way for us all to share our opinions and such. Anyways I'll stop talking now and let you all get to the chapter. Thank you soooooooo much for everything! You are all the most amazing people ever! LOVE!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...**

* * *

Khan gripped Lara to him and sobbed almost uncontrollably. Holding back tears of her own, Lara buried his head into her shoulder. She was more afraid then sad. Lara had never seen Khan this way, she had never seen him this broken and it terrified her. Moving she gently held Khan's face in her hands and he sucked in a breath, "They're gone…they're all gone…"

"It's not the end Khan. I'm still here; I'll never leave you—ever." He stared at her, face shuffling through several different emotions. Confusion, anger, compassion, depression and hurt until finally he landed on conviction. Khan leaned his forehead against hers and locked his eyes with hers.

"You're right, it's not over. We're still here…we can finish this. Destroy everything, bring it all tumbling down," he slowly got to his feet pulling up Lara with him. The ship tumbled and they caught themselves on fallen debris.

Crawling on her knees, Lara went over to a still functioning console. Her fingers flew over the lights and buttons until she finally pulled up on the large screen in front of them a diagnostic of the ship. Another rumble and they fell to their knees. Lara steadied herself on the console, "We're being pulled into Earth's atmosphere…" a loud explosion from somewhere in the ship rocked them to the side. Fire alarms went off and sparks flew. Grunting Lara continued to read, "We're burning up in the atmosphere…no shields, no weapons. How do we destroy them without weapons?"

Khan stumbled over to her, "We have a weapon," another crack and thunder as more fires came to life aboard the bridge and he pressed a button. Staring up at the screen and taking Lara's hand he shouted over the blaring alarms, "Set destination! Starfleet headquarters!"

The ship's computer came out of the speakers at them, _"Engines compromised. Cannot guarantee we will reach intended destination. Specified destination off-limits. Do you confirm order?"_

They fell over again, gripping each other and the console for support. Khan stared at Lara, put a hand on her face and she nodded. "Confirm."

* * *

Mary Westmoore had just gotten out of the world's longest, most grueling meeting. Her boss-a salty all together asshole-had been ripping her and her fellow employees a new one. Apparently, stock was down a few points and it was the fault of every single team leader. And that just so happened to be Mary who was the leader of the IT groups. She had no idea how or why IT would have anything to do with stock but honestly she was just glad she was allowed the half hour for lunch. Sitting outside of her office building she looked across the courtyard. Starfleet Headquarters was sitting there, stoic and beautiful. It really was a—

Loud screams could be heard from behind her. Facing where the sounds had come from, Mary saw exactly why people were screaming in fear. A large, battered ship was plunging down toward the bay and headed straight for Starfleet HQ. The ship skidded across the water knocking out Alcatraz and as if the ancient island had served as a bumper, it altered the ships course. Instead of running into Starfleet HQ, it landed in the bay and slid through the bayfront. Towers that were placed nearest to the bay were the first to be knocked out before the large vessel came to a grinding, groaning halt.

Thinking the worst was over, Mary stood from her seat preparing to run or help or…do something. But she could only freeze in fear. The towers and structures that had been knocked over were slowly falling toward the ground. Glass shards were the first to come raining over the city. People screamed and ran; Mary didn't know what to do or where to go. The only thing she could come up with was the small, rickety table she had been sitting at.

Quickly Mary ducked down underneath the table and covered her face. A rushing, whooshing sound flew over the crowd. Glass shards, metal pieces…maybe a few papers or other assorted items fell down all around her. More screaming echoed through the courtyard and heavy footsteps pounded past Mary and her little spot of cover. Peeking out from underneath her hands, Mary gasped. The destruction the utter chaos that surrounded her…it was absolutely terrifying. Slowly, she came out from underneath the table. It was like a warzone, like a nuclear bomb had been thrown into the bay.

She stood stark still. Mary was struck with fear as the chaos continued around her. Then she saw two figures, a tall dark haired man and a young woman with a pony tail run out of the center of the destruction.

* * *

Lara moaned. The crash had thrown her and Khan around the bridge of the ship; they had eventually found a solid place. They were pinned to the back of the command chair, Khan's arm thrown across her as they had held on for dear life.

"You alright?" Lara gasped at him and he only nodded. They were practically lying down. The ship had ended up on its side. Emergency sirens echoed behind them and the bridge view screen had been shattered, leaving it open like a giant window to the outside world. Khan leaned up around her and let go of the command chair sliding on his back until he came to a stop at the now open view screen.

"Lara," he called up to her and held out a hand. Stealing herself, Lara copied what he had done and slid down toward him. She landed stiffly, his arm placed firmly around her waist and his other hand gripping a few fallen cables for stability.

"We'll have to jump," she said looking down at the near thirty foot drop. Sucking in a breath she and Khan leaned back then leapt over the edge. Khan let out a grunt as their backs hit the side of whatever building they had landed against. Holding out their arms straight, they slid down the side gaining speed each second.

Coming toward the ground, Lara and Khan both mirrored each other. Almost sitting up on the building the tucked and rolled onto the ground. Lara laid still for a moment, panting and a bit worn but not so much that she couldn't keep fighting. She felt Khan's hands pull her up and she allowed him, running off to the side, trying to get as far from the wreckage as possible.

Khan led them around a corner and into a small alcove, the noise from the panicking crowd dying down. Holding her by the shoulders, Khan gripped her tightly, "You need to leave."

"What? What are you talking about?" Lara tried to move out of his grip but he only held her tighter. Giving her a slight shake Khan growled out,

"Lara. Stop." When she did he took in a deep breath and continued in a calmer voice, "You're the only part of me that's left. You need to survive; I can't live with you gone too."

Lara began to shake her head back and forth vigorously, "And neither can I…don't make me leave you…please I'll be lost without you."

Hot tears started to pool in her eyes and Khan gripped her face gently, "You're a survivor Lara. You're stronger than I could ever be, and I know we will find each other. Please I can't watch you die...I love you."

She stopped and stared up at him, "You…you said it…you l-love me?"

"Yes I do, with everything I have left to give. If you truly love me then you'll leave." Lara watched his eyes. They were full of so many emotions but the one she saw the most was love. Not angry love or lustful love…it was real, true and everything she had ever hoped for.

"Okay," she nodded, stealing herself and pushing back the tears, "alright I'll go." Reaching up she gripped his shirt tightly and bore her eyes into his, "I will find you. I promise."

Khan gripped the back of her head with one hand and used the other to press against her back. Pulling her against him, he pressed his lips to hers passionately. Lara wrapped her arms around his neck, fingernails digging into his skin as she kissed him back with equal passion. Pulling back Khan stared down at her, "I love you."

Lara tried to give him a smile, tried to let his last image of her be something nice but she could only frown. Sucking in her bottom lip she fought back a whimper and said, "I love you…so much." And in the span of a half second, he placed a chaste kiss to her forehead, turned and walked through the crowd.

Mary Westmoore had seen the entire exchange. The tall, dark haired man walked away from the girl who stood still in the alcove for moment. Seeming to shake herself, the girl shook her head; reached back to tighten her pony tail then turned and ran down the alcove. Jumping up, she climbed the short distance up the wall and over the other side, disappearing.

* * *

Leonard McCoy sighed, tired and drained. Jim was sleeping soundly in the hospital bed, slowly waking up from well…dying in order to save the Enterprise. It was late, almost past four in the morning and everyone else had left the hospital. Now a skeleton crew of nurses and a few doctors were taking over the night shift so everyone else could go home and rest. Bones looked down at his friend one last time, checked his monitors and turned to leave the room. Without looking back he flicked off the light in the room, not seeing the shadowed figure drop down into the center of the room.

Lara landed on her feet not making a sound as she slowly stood to her full height. She had been waiting in the ceiling for hours for Bones to leave and he finally did. Cracking her neck, Lara looked back over her shoulder at the sleeping captain, "Oh Jim…"

Her breath hitched and a lump formed in her throat as she slowly walked over to his bedside. Quietly, she pulled the visitor's chair up to the bed and sat down. "You look like shit," Lara's voice quivered as she fought back tears. Of course, Jim didn't reply only slept.

Letting out a sharp breath Lara rubbed at her heavy eyes. She hadn't slept in days. Keeping up tabs on Starfleet's progress with Khan and following both where he had gone and finding Jim had taken a lot out of her. "Sorry you had to die…but hey, at least you know what I went through right?"

Lara laughed but there was no humor on her face, "Guess Khan has saved us both now…even if you hate him or maybe you don't…you probably do though. He killed Pike-which is unfortunate-but he did save me Jim. He—" she let out a sharp breath, "oh what am I doing. Here I am trying to apologize and I only start to defend the man who tried to kill you and your crew."

She chewed her lip, "Look Jim, I don't know if you can hear me or not but…you need to know this-and I need to say it out loud. I never stopped loving you. I still do but…I'm _in love _with Khan. I will always pick him, every chance I get, every choice I can make, it will always be him. I…I'm sorry it came to what it did."

Lara shut her eyes and took in a deep breath, "You were my best friend, you helped me through the most difficult times of my life and I'll always remember that. I'll never forget what we had and what we shared."

"I don't want you or anyone else to see me as Lara Sheppard anymore. That girl who loved you died in that cave, she doesn't exist anymore." She opened her eyes. They pierced through the moonlit room. If Jim had been awake, he'd been terrified at the cold, threatening gaze staring down at him, "But from this point on…you need to know that if you _ever_ threaten my family-ever again…I will not hesitate to kill you. A part of me will regret it, but that doesn't mean I won't do it. My name is Lara Noonien Singh. Khan will return. And we will finish his work, and if you try to stop us…it will be your end."

* * *

_Thanks for reading! If you liked this, check out my Supernatural story, "Carry On". Lots and lots and lots of love! - Christine_


	15. Author's Note

**Hello my lovely readers. First off let me thank you all soooooo much for the wonderful reviews. A lot of you have expressed interest in a possible sequel, some have even said that I shouldn't have ended where I did. But you all need to know that I prefer to stick to the cannon of the stories/movies. Believe me as much as I would love to revisit Lara and the rest of the the characters, I'm sad to say that it's over (at least until the next movie comes out) I need to focus on my other stories, and perhaps in the future I might write a little more for She Falls Into Darkness but for now...it's over :(**

**In the meantime you can head over to my profile and on there is a link to my tumblr page. There I will be posting fanart that I create and you can all post fanart yourselves if you have any and there is a Q&A on there, you can ask me anything. Again thank you sooooooo much for the positive response I got from all of you. Without the feedback and follows I would probably have given up on this story before chapter five. I could never have thought to get so many followers and favorites and reviews but you all surprised me and I am incredibly humbled because of it.**

**But just because this story is over doesn't mean I will stop writing. There are a couple more stories that I am working on at the moment. Supernatural and Sherlock fans if you are interested I have two stories based in those universes. Alright I'll stop talking now, thank you all soooooo much! You are the best readers I could have ever asked for. Lots of love!**


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